Slaven Bilic: 'Newcastle United do not lack ambition'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 24 August 2017

Slaven Bilic suggests that he has little sympathy for Rafael Benitez ahead of this weekend's Premier League meeting between West Ham United and Newcastle United.

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has insisted that Newcastle United do not lack ambition, amid recent complaints made by boss Rafael Benitez.

The Magpies have spent roughly £35m since earning promotion from the Championship in April, bringing in the likes of Joselu, Florian Lejeune, Jacob Murphy and Javi Manquillo.

Despite Benitez's public protestations, Bilic rightly pointed out that Newcastle have a larger net spend than his West Ham side this summer, suggesting that he does not have a great deal of sympathy for his opposite number.

"They are not happy with the transfers but they spent more money than we have spent in this transfer window, if we are talking about net money," he told reporters. "Okay, they maybe needed more to improve because they came up from the Championship.

"It is a big club, they were all buzzing. They won the league and now it was 'now we are going to rule the world' or whatever. Maybe they tried. I think they tried. What I think happened is they tried but maybe they were unable to get those targets that they wanted. Like we did last year, for example.

"Maybe they were thinking too big and those players, they didn't want to come. But I don't feel that they are not an ambitious club, Newcastle, with Rafael Benitez, who basically lifted them up even more."

West Ham and Newcastle lock horns at St James' Park on Saturday afternoon, with both teams looking for their first Premier League point of the season at the third time of asking.