Yesterday it was reported that Slaven Bilic, former West Ham player and current coach of the Croatian National Team was in the running for the Fulham mangers job.
I watched a Barclays Premier League preview show with him featured on it a few weeks ago and he’s a pretty interesting guy. Went to law school, but went back to football and coaching as he always wanted. He plays in a band, speaks three languages, (although the interview he did was interpreted so perhaps his English is not very good) and said he has a very large desire to coach in the prem someday. I know his players seem to really like him and he can be very intense.
The thing that I remember most about Bilic from his playing days was his performances at WC 98 and how he faked injury when the Croatians played France in the semi-finals. He made it look like Laurent Blanc hit him when he had not and went down holding his face and rolling on the ground. After a stellar career, Blanc had to miss the final because of the antics as Laurent was incorrectly red carded. Thankfully France moved on to defeat the diving Croatians and win the the World Cup at home. But I’ve never been able to shed that anger towards Bilic in his diabolic exploits to win at any cost.
With that said, I do believe the man has great potential as a manager and I think you may see him coach in the premiership someday. It’s his dream and he’s good at managing. But he will not be managing at Fulham. At least he will not be Fulham’s new manager as he ruled himself out on Saturday.
When asked about a job share with the Croatian team he said,
I don’t really want to do a job share, whether it’s Fulham, Manchester United or a second division club in Croatia. There is absolutely no chance of me taking another job before Euro 2008.
You should read Jonathan Wilson’s “football behind the curtain” – there’s a really interesting bit about Bilic in that. He discusses that incident, I’ll re-read when I get home and have a look what he says. Interesting fellow though.
Indeed he is interesting. I’d love to hear a report on what it had to say.