West Brom wanted to sign three players & what I’d have done differently
Part one of our exclusive interview with Slaven Bilic, who guided West Brom to promotion in 2020
Slaven Bilic’s beaming smile greets me once I admit him from the waiting room and into the Zoom chat for our exclusive interview. The Croat hasn’t been working since mutually deciding to part ways with Al-Fateh in August. He’s back in the familiar surroundings of his native Split, having departed Saudi for a second time, and has just finished the school run for another morning.
Bilic, 56, is well travelled. He has spent time in Saudi, but also in China. A large portion of his footballing career has been spent, as a defender and as a manager, in England. Associated primarily with West Ham United, he will forever hold a fond place in his heart for West Bromwich Albion.
It’s the summer of 2019, and Albion are licking their wounds having been beaten by Aston Villa in the play-offs, then under caretaker Jimmy Shan. The wheels had been in motion long before the final penalty kick in the shoot-out which marked a miserable end to the Baggies’ first attempt at returning to the Premier League. Bilic was soon unveiled, tasked with lifting the club up off the canvas. We take it from the top.
“We’d lost goals,” he reflects. “Jay Rodriguez and Dwight Gayle, and to add to that Harvey Barnes. Holgate went. We had a plan, but sometimes it doesn’t click. For us, it clicked from day one. We got Sawyers. We needed a quick centre back and got Semi Ajayi. We needed reliable players like Darnell Furlong. We needed goals. We got Pereira. I watched him in Germany and he was a player we really liked. We got Diangana. Charlie Austin guarantees goals.
