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Slaven Bilic rejects chance to become West Brom's new manager
Slaven Bilic has turned down the chance to become West Bromwich Albion’s new head coach. The 49-year-old former West Ham United manager was approached this week to see whether he wanted to hold talks but is understood to have indicated it is too early for him to return to football.
Albion's Chinese owner, Guochuan Lai, was interested in speaking to Bilic as he looks to appoint a successor to Tony Pulis, who was sacked on Monday following a dismal run of form and with the fans having turned against him. A
lbion want to appoint a manager with Premier League experience and Bilic emerged as a possible contender for them. The Croatian is currently spending time with his family after being sacked by West Ham at the beginning of the month and would like to take some time off until the New Year before deciding his next move.
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Despite losing his job at West Ham, where he was in the final year of his contract, Bilic did well at the club, steering them to seventh in the league in his first season in charge and 11th in the last campaign. However, he endured a difficult start to this season and the pressure eventually told with defeat at home to Liverpool before the last international break.
Another ex-West Ham manager, Alan Pardew, is still favourite to take over at West Brom. He has been out of management for 11 months since being sacked by Crystal Palace but had previously worked with Albion's technical director Nicky Hammond at Reading. However, Lai's approach to Bilic indicates that Pardew is not the only candidate who has been considered.
Meanwhile, Pulis’ assistant, Gary Megson, is set to take charge of Saturday’s match away to Tottenham Hotspur, which will be his first Premier League fixture in charge since December 2009.
Megson returned to the game this summer after answering an SOS from Pulis but now finds himself as interim manager. Megson, 58, has admitted he finds the situation uncomfortable as he prepares for this weekend’s trip to Wembley.
“This is absolutely not an audition for me and while everyone aspires to be in the Premier League, this is in the most unfortunate of circumstances,” he told Telegraph Sport. “I’ve obviously been out football for some time and this isn’t something I was expecting to happen earlier this year.
“I was on my way to Corsica on holiday with my wife when Tony called me and asked to come in as his assistant. I wasn’t sure about it as I’d never done the role before.
“Now we’ve had a chain of events that require me to take charge of the team, for however long it is. I’ve taken nearly 700 games as a manager so hopefully West Brom think I know what I’m doing.”
Megson’s last job was at Sheffield Wednesday, with Milan Mandaric controversially wielding the axe in February 2012 after a 1-0 win over their Steel City rivals, with the club third in League One. He spent the next two years applying for managerial posts but struggled to even get an interview.
This weekend, however, he will face Mauricio Pochettino in front of more than 65,000 people hoping to secure Albion’s first league win since August.
“We’ve contrived to get three draws from three games we should have won and that’s why we’re in this position,” he said. “It makes the games against the super powers even harder but we will go there and look to cause them problems.
"There is no such thing as a caretaker manager - you're either the manager or you haven't got one. I'm contracted to West Brom and no matter what happens to me, we've all got a job to do."
