What Football Needs is More Slaven Bilić

By: Martha | January 16th, 2008

Slaven and His People

Croatia coach (and wannabe rock star) Slaven Bilić is all over the English media today, offering his eminently quotable opinion on everything from the genius of Fabio Capello to why England lost to Bilić’s team in Euro 2008 qualifying (one guess on the answer to that one); from his paltry salary (about $4.10/year, if my conversions are correct), to why the pressure on him is far greater than that felt by Capello.

Rather than tell you in my feeble words what Bilic had to say, I’ll just let them wash over you, unfiltered.

On Capello:

In Croatia, if someone comes and sits at your table and after 20 minutes he is telling you all the systems and the tactics, then we will say, ‘Who do you think you are, Capello?’ Not José Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson or Marcello Lippi, he is regarded as better than all of them. Absolutely the best. Yet he cannot do everything.

On Capello’s new team:

We beat [England] because we are better. In the games, in the qualification, we were a better team than England. That’s the end of the story. And we are still better.

On his own salary, which is less than £50,000/year:

This is almost for free, let’s be honest. It’s a disgrace for Croatia, not for Slaven Bilić. The Croatian football manager should be paid more.

On pressure:

I know now I can cope with the pressure of any job in the world. If I became the manager of Real Madrid, Manchester United or wherever, I will never be under more pressure than at Croatia right now. This is everything, this is personal, it affects my mother, my children, because I’m managing my country. … I’m under more pressure than Capello. He doesn’t know English people. His family is not in England. So whether he gets slaughtered on the front pages or the back pages doesn’t matter. With me I read that I’m not good as a person, that my tie isn’t tied properly, that I can’t play the guitar well. It’s about me as a person.

Man, alive, but it’s nice to see someone just saying what they think in football management, huh? Since Mourinho left Chelsea, all the joy (and taunting, and goading) has gone out of gaffer interviews. What are the odds Bilić will stay this frank and brash after it comes back to bite him in the 700 times in his managerial career? We can hope, anyway — fingers crossed 60-something Slaven will be just as chatty as he is now. And still beating England.