Patrick Barclay: Thorny issue is no problem as West Ham boss Bilic comes up smelling of roses

Vindicated: Slaven Bilic's decision to name a weak team in Europe paid off
Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Patrick Barclay10 August 2015

Slaven Bilic may be new to Premier League management but, having played here and kept in touch with the English game — not least when jousting with Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello on the international stage — he clearly has a grasp of issues facing our clubs.

And the boldness with which he has faced one of the thorniest can only be applauded.

Whatever you may have thought of the selection policy that led to West Ham’s failure to qualify for the Europa League group stages, it paid off at the Emirates yesterday.

Few of the fans who trooped home from Romania feeling short-changed by the fielding of a weakened team against Astra Giurgiu would have been still complaining as they celebrated their rested elite’s start to the domestic season.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

An offer of a Europa League place, with its burden of the Thursday/Sunday routine, provides three options: (a) to try nonetheless to win the thing (increasingly attractive now the prize includes promotion to the Champions League); (b) give your fans and players a taste of Europe before concentrating wholly on the Premier League; (c) have a look at your kids and not mind too much if you get knocked out. Bilic took option (c) and it’s doubtful that West Ham would otherwise have had the legs to see off Arsenal.

True, the club won’t be able to savour the memories Fulham cherish from 2009/10, when Roy Hodgson’s men went all the way to the Europa League Final but others, such as Newcastle, have suffered.

Even Tottenham might have run Manchester United closer for fourth place last season but for poor Sunday results.

Liverpool, perhaps, could have a realistic tilt at the Europa League this season. But Bilic knows his squad are not strong enough. His priority is to make sure West Ham are in the Premier League when they take possession of the Olympic Stadium next year — and it’s fair to say that any fears have been considerably eased.

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