West Ham open to 'exceptional' signings as Bilic brands Carroll 'best striker in England'

Alexandre Pato is currently on loan from Corinthians at Sao Paolo

WEST HAM are in the market for “exceptional” players this January, says manager Slaven Bilic.

 

Bilic made 11 signings during the summer and has been forced to utilise most of them due to injuries to keep players.

Club bosses are expected to bid for new recruits in January and have been linked with Sao Paulo loanee Alexander Pato and Milan’s Keisuke Honda in recent days.

But Bilic insists he is happier to get the current crop back to full fitness as West Ham continue their strong early-season from that sees them sit third in the Premier League heading into the weekend.

 

“We will see in January, but they are just rumours,” Bilic said, when asked about interest in Pato and Honda.

“We have done the majority of the job in August and I’m happy with the team.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re not, if possible, going to get one or two or offload one or two, but nothing major in terms of numbers.

“But if something exceptional comes our way then you never know. But we have done our job and we are OK.”

West Ham recently welcomed back striker Andy Carroll after another serious layoff with injury, while Enner Valencia is close to returning to full fitness.

Alex Song, who signed for the Hammers this summer after a loan spell last season, is also expected to return to the first team soon - a boost Bilic says is better than signing new men.

“We are expecting some good players, like Carroll who came back, like Valencia who came back, and now we’re expecting Song,” he said.

“So three of them are going to be our best signings.

Asked if midfielder Song is fit for Saturday’s clash at Watford, Bilic replied: “Not for this weekend but he’ll be back soon.”

Carroll himself scored his first goal of the season in the Hammers’ 2-1 win against Chelsea last weekend.

The England international, 26, is still recovering from an ankle injury sustained as he was nearing match fitness following knee surgery earlier this year.

Asked about his main striker, Bilic said: "You can't say that we haven't had a physical presence in the last third without him, we have it and are good in the air, but Andy is perhaps the best in England.

"When a good ball is delivered, it is basically up to him and not the defenders - no matter how good they are in the air, it's almost impossible to mark him.

"His game is not limited to that, he can play all over the pitch. He has got a sense and feeling for the game.

“He can see the move and two or three moves ahead of that which makes him a great player.

“He needs to be more consistent and stay away from injuries - it’s the same old story.

“Four or five years ago he had the same situation as he did on Saturday against Chelsea - scored a goal and got injured two weeks later.

"His quality has never been in doubt, the issue was either being unlucky with injuries or not taking good care of himself.

“He hasn't had the consistency, apart from that one season when he scored a million goals for Newcastle."

 



Andy Carroll scored his first goal of the season for West Ham last weekend



West Ham face Watford this weekend knowing that a victory could see them move top of the Premier League - should other results go their way.

They remain unbeaten away in the league, having secured victories at Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Crystal Palace.

And Bilic says there is no reason why that away form cannot continue at Vicarage Road.

“Our goal is simply to try to win as may football games as we can and if possible to play nice and attractive football,” he said.

“Sometime we do it, sometimes not, but we’re going to fight in every game.

“This is a new team, a new squad - a great club but a new team. Totally new.

 



Slaven Bilic says West Ham may sign a couple of new players in January



“The big battle was from last year, the core of the team has been playing together for some time and that’s the greatest thing.

“We only added some new players that we thought were necessary to make the team better. It’s still early days to see what the limits are to this team.

“But we are doing well and are going to try. We have a lot of room to improve in every aspect of the team in the modern football game. We will do our best to improve.

“The players have known each other only for a couple of months, so we can improve on our organisation - although we’re good at that.

“We can improve in transition both ways, improve in small things like set pieces, second balls, we have to improve in shooting because we’re not shooting enough from the situations that we should.

“That doesn’t mean that I’m not happy with the performance but we can improve in absolutely everything.” 

 



Bilic says he enjoys the locality of London derbies



Saturday’s clash will be Bilic’s fourth London derby in charge of West Ham and the boss revealed that he enjoys local fixtures not simply because of their increased importance for spectators.

“It’s good because you don’t have to travel,” he said.

“We can have a normal training (session) here tomorrow, we don’t even have to start at 11, we can start at 1 o’clock and still go to Watford and be in the hotel in no time.

“That is a privilege of course.

“All the derbies are special. In derbies there are no favourites.

“We are at the moment enjoying it and would be looking forward to it whoever we are playing.

“We are positive and are on a good run, we know what we have to do to continue to play like this either against Watford or someone else.

“It makes no big difference - we have a huge respect for everyone.”