Slaven Bilic has said it was his idea for his players to have a night out together and revealed he will wait until after West Ham United’s game against Middlesbrough on Saturday before deciding whether to take action against Andy Carroll and Darren Randolph following claims the pair were drunk on Tuesday afternoon.
After holding an inquest into West Ham’s poor start to the season, Bilic told Mark Noble to arrange a team meal on Monday night as a way of boosting the squad’s unity. The decision threatened to backfire when conflicting reports on social media suggested Carroll, who is out with a knee injury, and Randolph were drunk the following afternoon.
Although the players had been given a day off on Tuesday, West Ham are conducting an investigation into the reports and Bilic has already spoken to Carroll and Randolph to gather more information.
The West Ham manager does not have a problem with team bonding sessions both in good and bad times. He said: “It was completely my idea. After the Southampton game we had a big meeting and at the end of the meeting I told Mark, the skipper, to take the guys out to dinner, to spend time together is always good. I’ve been there before, it’s definitely a good idea and good to do it. There have been some rumours in papers and all that but it’s private, we are going to see what happened.
“I spoke to the chairman. After the game, at the start of next week, we are going to talk about it and if necessary we are going to act. But if you are asking who’s idea it was it was my idea, completely. I told them to do that, for me it’s a good thing to do, not every week but in a great situation or a bad situation it’s good to stick together and its a good thing to do. It’s good for team building and that’s it.”
Bilic, whose side could jump out of the bottom three with a win over Middlesbrough at the London Stadium, said Carroll and Randolph remain innocent until proven guilty.
“It was suggested but it’s not proven,” Bilic said. “I told you. It was my idea. We have a game and we are not going to discuss it. We are always discussing it to solve problems in our family, within the club. There are rumours, I am aware of them, I spoke to the chairman about it and he agreed we should focus on the game. We are going to talk about it, find out what happened but now it’s not proven, it’s rumours. We will talk and if necessary act on it. That’s all I’m going to say on it.
“After that night we had a day off. Training yesterday was really good but training last week was really good without bonding. I have been saying we have to produce it in games.”
