Slaven Bilic interview: West Brom wanted to sign three players & what I'd have done differently

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.

READ: Dike gets West Brom injury 'green light' as Maja link up is discussed

READ: Corberan on Cole 'regret' and the challenge for fringe players

"We lost Jay to Burnley and then Dawson left. Hegazi got injured. You can think 'oh my god, it going to be difficult', but we had Sam Johnstone, Kyle Bartley, the most important player on the pitch Jake Livermore. We had Gibbo, and Conor [Townsend] behind him, and Matt Phillips and Hal Robson. Then you had the great professionals in Gareth Barry and Chris Brunt - you need men in the Championship. It clicked straight away."

A new look Albion were often electric under Bilic in that first half of the campaign. Some of the football on show, the way they strolled to victories, with an enviable spine and a striking balance of solidity and flair in the forward line, made them a joy to cover from this reporter's point of view. A pleasure, too, it was to speak with Bilic, who was colourful, charming and insightful, on a weekly basis.

Albion and Leeds almost urged each other on throughout that season. Both defeated in the play-offs earlier that year, they set an astonishing pace. Albion had 50 points and sat top by Christmas, having ruthlessly dismantled Swansea and having staged a remarkable comeback at Birmingham City. The scene of Bilic and Marcelo Bielsa embracing each other after a draw on New Year's Day 2020 still does the rounds now and then.

After a near faultless February, in which Bilic claimed the manager of the month award following a return of 16 points from a possible 18, everything changed the world over. The pandemic halted football in its tracks. For weeks, players attempted to stay fit, not knowing if or when they'd be returning, and in what capacity. Might the Championship be concluded there and then? Bilic admits psychological doubts crept into the Albion sphere.

"It's easy to say now that, if not for Covid, we'd have gone straight up, ten points clear," Bilic reasons. "Nobody knows what might've happened, that's life. I've thought about it a lot. Even then, what I didn't like was that, during Covid and lockdown and we didn't see each other for a few weeks, we started to train in groups of four and then it expanded. At the time, you're following the media a lot and the question was asked - what was going to happen?

"Were we going to continue that season? Or will it be finished and we get promotion? I remember the players, as they came in in their groups, I think the majority of them were telling me 'boss, it'd be best for the season to finish'. I'm like 'of course it would be', but part of me was wondering why are they asking me that? What happened? Pressure. When you're playing, you don't have time to think - you're on a wave.

"You're playing a game every three days and you don't have time to celebrate. You're on a wave, like a surfer. You're flying and then...three, four, five, six weeks, I don't remember how long it was but in that time the players had time to think. As soon as that little bug comes into your head, you're like 'f****** hell', nine games, multiplied by three, 27 points - s***, we still have a job to do! You start to doubt. That's what happened.

"Brentford won seven games they didn't have to. It's totally the other thing - the two games they had to, they didn't. That's the pressure. For us, it was even worse. Practically all of their games, they played before us. You're thinking 'they're not going to win seven out of seven, they're not Man City'. And then it was like 'oh my God, they won again!' The more time that has passed the more credit I give to the guys for doing the job.

"You can't do another pre-season. We didn't even know if it was going to restart. You don't have that crazy motivation. Sometimes it comes to your mind 'why are we training?' Sometimes the papers were saying it won't restart. You cannot control the players. They might think 'it's not going to restart, I can put on a few kilos, I can relax!' It was very strange."

Albion did, albeit in not exactly convincing fashion, haul themselves over the line in Project Restart. That is when the challenges really began to present themselves to Bilic, who had, along with Luke Dowling, been able to players who could help take the club up from the Championship - staying there required significant funding which Guochuan Lai simply didn't have.

"It's not all about money, but you need the players," Bilic says. "It's the biggest step. Football isn't mathematics, it doesn't guarantee you'll stay up or win the league, but if you don't spend, it guarantees you will go down unless something crazy happens. I was hoping that some of the players will have needed less time to adapt. One thing is the quality. It's why they give you the money, to spend because they know they must maintain the quality.

"We didn't. The owner had some issues with his other company, you don't see him because of Covid. You had Ken [Xu Ke], who was trying. It was his first time in football. Luke was experienced, he was there the year before he brought me. He has got connections. He knows what the team needs. He doesn't hold the keys in his hands, though. You need money.

"The owner might've thought we invested because we bought Grady Diangana, but you didn't improve the team. We spent it on players who were already there, signing them permanently. That's one issue. We couldn't add the quality. It was also experience - we had only a few players who had played in the Premier League. I hoped we could make the switch quicker. I thought they had the ability to play there.

You don't have the help of the fans, either. One game explains almost everything - the first game against Leicester. We were flying first half, but as soon as Leicester had their first chance, it was like 'oh my God, they're better than us'. It's easy to say now but we improved after those first few games.

Even against Chelsea, we were 3-0 up at half time and in the dressing room they were like 'hmm, I don't know'. I said to them 'today they're only Chelsea jerseys! They're bad, we're better than them!' I can't say we'd have stayed in the Premier League, it's easy to say five years later, but we were improving - we just didn't invest. We had a plan, we had a list. They said unfortunately the owner needs the money for his other business."

Albion did secure permanent deals for Diangana, Callum Robinson and Matheus Pereira, while Filip Krovinovic returned on another year's loan, but only Karlan Grant really felt like a 'new' signing. Conor Gallagher was borrowed from Chelsea and veteran Branislav Ivanovic recruited on a free. Cedric Kipre was a cheap agreement which Albion waited three years to feel the benefits of. Bilic admits Albion might've approached things differently if he had his time again.

"The ideal scenario is keeping your own players and then to add," he said. "You had a very successful season, you did the job and you are getting attached to those players. They're the reasons why you're in the Premier League. I probably would sacrifice one of my 'lieblings' to do the job, but we didn't know then.

"Because the transfer window doesn't close before the season, you're always dreaming and hoping [that other signings may arrive], but the people above you maybe don't have the full information. I strongly believe, because it's a cornerstone of any relationship, that Luke was also told that the funds were going to come. Unfortunately they didn't, and in the end it was too late to do that manoeuvring.

"It was too late to tell a player who had got you promoted 'listen, son, you're not coming on the journey'. It's not easy, but it's part of the job. We had some positions where we were thin, or where we just weren't good enough."

Albion did look to the Championship, beyond Grant. It was established that taking players from the division the Baggies had just conquered could prove to be a prudent way of going about their business. The problem, as it was in many areas of the club for almost eight years, was the ownership and the failure to provide any form of funding beyond what Albion had earned through sealing promotion in the first place.

Having beaten Brentford to automatic promotion, Albion explored deals for Said Benrahma and Ollie Watkins, the latter who would eventually join Aston Villa the same summer, as well as QPR star Eberechi Eze. All three made their way to the top flight via other avenues. For Albion, though, those moves were ultimately non-starters.

"We targeted Benrahma from Brentford," Bilic confirms. "It was Watkins from Brentford. Eze from QPR. For Spurs, Aston Villa, West Ham, they could spend money. For us, it was different. We wanted to get a centre back who made a difference. In the end we got a great guy and leader in Ivanovic, but he was getting injured. We had to rely on foreign players, but not stars. We could go to Championship players, they have Premier League talent but there was no proof.

"They were affordable. We otherwise didn't stand a chance to compete with the others. For them, we should have a budget. You're going to the Premier League. Why I was p***** off and frustrated. I could understand if I'd asked for a player from Roma, or Bayer Leverkusen, or Espanyol. We asked to get players from the Championship, so there'd be an element of risk.

"When I say spend, you don't have to spend crazy. Not even in the Premier League. You can get good players, two or three more we needed, but it doesn't have to be a completely new team. We were in pre-season at St George's Park, and Brentford were there. Players were coming to me 'boss, we need players'. They were saying 'speak to Watkins, speak to that one'.

"It was pointless! I liked that openness from them, but they were talking in the dressing room. By doing that, they were admitting they weren't good enough if we needed players. To change that, you must invest or learn lessons in the season. It wasn't like the clear sky in Split, when you are taking off you see islands, and it's sunny. It was more like taking off in Birmingham, where it's very cloudy and turbulent!"

The second part of our interview with Slaven Bilic will be live on Monday morning.

What is your favourite memory of Albion under Bilic? Join the debate HERE