Slaven Bilic was in good spirits after West Ham’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Goals from Sofiane Feghouli, Andy Carroll and Manuel Lanzini gave the Hammers their biggest home league win since the Croatian took over from Sam Allardyce in 2015.
However, Bilic seemed rather miffed that he wasn’t able to answer questions about his team’s performance in the post-match press conference, with some preferring to quiz him on the future of Dimitri Payet.
Exactly… https://t.co/4aHan1U9rB
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 15, 2017
Payet, last season’s player of the year, was left out of the matchday squad amid claims from Bilic that the Frenchman does not want to play for West Ham.
But the manager did not take too kindly to journalists focusing on that rather than on a comprehensive victory, even dropping a four-letter word in his less-than-complimentary response.
"Focus on @AndyTCarroll's wonder goal for f**k sake!" @WestHamUtd boss Slaven Bilic in no mood to discuss @dimpayet17's future. pic.twitter.com/S9xj6MYXKj
— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) January 15, 2017
“Ask the chairmen,” Bilic replies with a shake of the head.
“Let’s talk about Andy Carroll, let’s talk about Randolph, let’s talk about Mark Noble, for f**k sake.
“They deserve for us to talk [for] hours about them. That goal deserved to be spoken of for ages.”
It’s tough to argue with the manager’s suggestion that we should be talking about Carroll’s wonder-strike, but he is surely under no illusions that situations such as the one surrounding Payet will linger until it is resolved one way or another.
Catch up with this week’s episode of Football Friday Live:
