West Ham can compete with Premier League´s elite for players – Bilic

Slaven Bilic has talked up West Ham’s financial muscle in the transfer market, claiming the Londoners can now compete with the Premier League’s elite for players.

After moving to London Stadium, West Ham have brought in Andre Ayew, Arthur Masuaku and Sofiane Feghouli, as well as loanee Jonathan Calleri.

While West Ham were unsuccessful in their attempts to sign Michy Batshuayi – who they will come up against on Monday after the Belgian striker joined Chelsea – and AC Milan’s Carlos Bacca, the club did break their transfer record to prise Ayew from Swansea City.

And West Ham manager Bilic is happy with the state of his squad.

“I said it openly, we tried to get at the beginning one of the top strikers of the moment and they opted for a bigger club and also better money of course, but at the end we bought what we wanted to. I’m happy,” the Croatian said.

“I said a few weeks ago to the chairman and [chief scout] Tony Henry that if we want to go big game fishing, there are two conditions for us to compete with the big clubs – if we go early or if we put more money in.

“Then we might have had a chance, on paper, with those great ones. But we didn’t do that. Then it is almost impossible to get the player.”

West Ham finished seventh in the Premier League last season, while Chelsea surrendered their title as they languished in 10th position.