West Ham United are reportedly interested in Reading manager Jaap Stam.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic
According to The Mirror, West Ham United are interested in landing Reading boss Jaap Stam as a possible replacement for current manager Slaven Bilic.
Bilic may have guided West Ham to a seventh-place finish in the Premier League last season, but his second term in charge of the club has proven to be far more difficult.
The Croatian crashed out of the Europa League before the group stage, and whilst he dragged the club away from relegation troubles earlier this season, it’s now no win in the last five games for West Ham.
Two points in that run have piled the pressure back on Bilic, with some suggestions that he could leave the club this summer – and The Mirror claim that a possible replacement has already been lined up.
The Mirror report that Reading boss Jaap Stam has shot to the top of West Ham’s wish list to replace Bilic should they look to replace him this summer, with the Dutchman emerging as a shock target.
Stam, 44, left a coaching role with Ajax in his native Netherlands to become Reading boss over the summer, and he has turned the Royals into a promotion-hunting play-off team in the Championship this season.
Reading manager Jaap Stam
Stam’s possession-based style of play has won him fans and plaudits throughout the season, with West Ham now believed to be keen on the former Manchester United defender – and Reading missing out on promotion would surely help their pursuit.
The links to Stam are particularly interesting given that, earlier this month, Stam was quoted by Get Reading as saying that Reece Oxford – on loan at Reading from West Ham – had been surprised by the intensity of training with the Royals compared to sessions with the Hammers.
Stam openly suggesting that West Ham’s training under Bilic may lack intensity was a real surprise, but the difference in styles of the two managers may well weigh on the minds of David Gold and David Sullivan as they consider their next move.
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