Slaven Bilic admits West Ham could have lost their best player again

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With West Ham United still bearing the scars of losing star man Dimitri Payet, manager Slaven Bilic has admitted it could have been even worse.

Slaven Bilic says goodbye to Dimitri Payet in January

The Hammers were forced to sell the talismanic Frenchman back to former club Marseille for a cut price £25 million in January after he downed tools on boss Slaven Bilic.

It was a devastating blow for the manager and club and impacted West Ham’s efforts on the pitch both before and after.

In his absence the likes of Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini have stepped up to the plate to soften the blow.

And that was evidenced by the fact Antonio is the newly crowned Hammer of the Year while Lanzini was named Players’ Player of the Year at the club’s official awards night this week.

With the 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur last time out securing West Ham’s Premier League status, thoughts are already turning to summer recruitment.

West Ham United’s Michail Antonio celebrates

And the Hammers have got things off to a great start with the announcement that Antonio has finally signed a new contract after protracted negotiations, as revealed on the club’s official website.

The news came as a huge relief to supporters who had seen him linked with a big money move to Champions-elect Chelsea.

And now Bilic has revealed the rumours were true and that West Ham have had to fight off interest from some big clubs to avoid losing their best player for the second time in sixth months.

“It’s great news for us,” Bilic told whufc.com.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte was rumoured to want Antonio

“To be fair, I have always been confident Mikey would sign, but it is still a great feeling to have one of our top players to commit himself to us for the long term.

“The chairman (David Sullivan) has worked very hard to get the deal done because, to be honest, it’s not just paper talk – there have been a lot of big clubs interested in him, so it is great for the club to do this before the end of the season.”