Slaven Bilic has risked angering his employer after saying David Sullivan “likes to talk” and revealing he thought the Sporting Lisbon president’s description of West Ham United’s owners as “the Dildo Brothers” was funny.
Bilic dismissed Sullivan’s claim he turned down deals for Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak, who joined Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion respectively last month, and questioned whether it was appropriate for the club’s co-owner to publicise their discussions about transfer targets.
The manager hinted at his dissatisfaction by doing little to hide his amusement at West Ham’s row with Sporting about the way negotiations for William Carvalho broke down on the final day of the transfer window.
West Ham’s manager, who insists his future does not depend on beating Huddersfield Town on Monday night, pretended not to have seen Bruno de Carvalho’s disparaging comments about Sullivan and David Gold before laughing when they were relayed to him. “Which comment?” Bilic said. “I thought about coming with a lawyer today. There have been issues. Come on, say it. It’s funny. It made me laugh but look, I don’t like to talk about some things. What I know about that transfer is that I wanted the player. That has been going on for a long time. We kept it low-profile.
“It was the whole summer and it looked promising. From what I know we spoke, not me, but West Ham people and the people who have the power, they spoke to Sporting about Carvalho. We wanted him. I’m smiling, I’m laughing, I’m joking. I’m frustrated because we didn’t get the player, of course. I’ve been trying to get him for a couple of years. It didn’t happen with Perisic at Man United, it didn’t happen with a few players at Chelsea. I’m not angry at anyone. You can’t get all the things you want in life. We still have a team.”
West Ham, who are bottom after losing all three matches, have threatened legal action against Sporting in response to claims that they never made an offer for Carvalho. The Portugal midfielder was a major target for Bilic, who hopes the deal can be revived in January, but West Ham refused to meet the asking price of £37.5m. Reports this week suggested West Ham sent an email containing an offer €25m, paid in three instalments, plus add-ons, in early August.
Sullivan responded to suggestions he failed to back Bilic by saying the manager turned down the chance to sign Krychowiak and Sanches, both of whom play in Carvalho’s position. However, the manager said that was because signing Carvalho was his main priority.
“David Sullivan likes to talk,” Bilic said. “It’s his right to be able to. I wanted the player and that is not exactly what happened with those two you mention. I wanted Carvalho and it looked likely. During my time at West Ham it’s very common that, when it looks like a player is going to happen, someone throws in two or three other names and that distracts you from the main target, and that’s what happened. Those two other players are very good players.”
Asked if he feels scapegoated by Sullivan, Bilic said: “I told you there are many things I am not happy about but I don’t function like that. If I want to say something, no problem. I am not going to talk through my lawyers – I don’t have a lawyer – or the media. I am expecting if he says something about me to call me, to say this and not go through you guys, although that is best for you.”
Bilic revealed players were sold to raise funds for Carvalho. “Everybody is talking about how much money we spent on [Marko] Arnautovic and Chicharito [Javier Hernández],” he said. “But we sold 11 players. We did not have a massive squad like Arsenal. I was so sure we would do it. We spent £6m, not £26m.”
However he wants to put the issue behind him. “You can’t be like a small child and cry and go ‘buy me that Kinder egg’ that my daughter is asking me for every time we go to Waitrose,” Bilic said. “Then if you don’t buy it she is very disappointed. We’ve got good players. This was one disappointment. This was a crucial position for us that we’ve been trying to get since I came here. It didn’t happen. I can be disappointed, but if we tried everything then you can’t be angry.
“I wanted Carvalho. Fuck it now, you know what I mean? I have a good team.”