West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic brought former Besiktas star Gokhan Tore to the Premier League – but the deal has proved disastrous for all parties.
There are many factors in West Ham’s disappointing season that manager Slaven Bilic cannot be blamed for.
The transition to a new stadium was always going to be a challenge, as was dealing with the sudden and unexpected departure of Dimitri Payet midway through the season. Furthermore, the baffling recruitment policy employed by the club’s owners, Davids Gold and Sullivan, has proved a major hindrance to the manager’s hopes of matching last year’s sixth place finish.
Yet, according to The Guardian, The Hammers’ hierarchy are still concerned by the identity of the one transfer Bilic had a major say in. After all, Gokhan Tore is a surefire candidate for any hypothetical ‘flop of the season’ award.
The Turkish international winger was one of Bilic’s key players at former club Besiktas and, just last season, he helped the Istanbul giants to the Super Lig title.
However, his move to the London Stadium has been nothing short of a disaster thus far. Arriving on a one year loan with an option to buy, as reported by the BBC, Tore has made just three Premier League starts, the last coming when he was hooked at half-time against Middlesbrough on the first of October.
Toring his hair out
An eight-month absence thanks to a knee injury at least offers some degree of mitigation but, the fact is, Tore looked well out of his depth in the Premier League as soon as he arrived. In fact, by the time the injury struck, the former Chelsea youth had already fallen down the pecking order.
Therefore, while Bilic may lament the club’s failure to recruit adequately this summer, he must take the blame for Tore.
It appears that is the opinion of the West Ham chiefs anyway, with The Guardian reporting that Bilic has two games, the home fixtures with Tottenham and Liverpool, to save his job.
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