Huddersfield boss David Wagner hopes West Ham chief Slaven Bilic gets more time after poor start
Croat is under pressure after three defeats from three at the start of the Premier League campaign
DAVID Wagner hopes West Ham boss Slaven Bilic gets time to turn a poor start to the season around.
But the Huddersfield manager hopes to make things worse for the Croat before they get better.
Bilic is already under pressure after losing their opening three games, conceding 10 goals.
But Wagner has called on Hammers owners David Gold and David Sullivan to give his opposite number the chance to come good, only after Huddersfield have played them on Monday.
He said: “It’s totally correct that he gets backed as they have played three away games.
“I’ll be happy if he gets all the time he needs to try and correct things – but only after Monday!”
Wagner insists Monday’s clash is still ‘big West Ham’ against ‘little Huddersfield’, even though they currently sit third in the table.
And while he admits playing at the London Stadium will be ‘special’ he insists his players cannot look at what is going on elsewhere.
He added: “It will be special but we have to show quality that we have, everything else is irrelevant.
“We have to be focused on the important things.
“I’ve no idea if it’s a good time to play West Ham or not, and to be fair it doesn’t bother me what goes on there and we can’t influence it.
“We’re still humble enough to know we’re playing big West Ham while we’re small Huddersfield Town but we’re ambitious and will try everything to get the result.”
Wagner has transformed Huddersfield’s squad after promotion from the Championship but striker Nahki Wells did leave for Burnley for a fee believed to be about £10 million.
And Wagner admitted that decision was motivated by money.
He said: “It’s more a business decision. We offered Nahki a new contract but he turned it down and he was in the final year of his contract.
“I’m pleased with what Nahki did for the club. He’s a good striker and I wish him all the best, apart from when he plays us!”
Meanwhile, Christopher Schindler believes Huddersfield can keep using the Ian Holloway factor to prove people wrong and stay in the Premier League.
And he wants Town’s doubters to keep on coming.
Last year, Wagner’s men were tipped by the QPR boss to go down from the Championship, never mind reach the top flight.
Holloway admits he will ‘never live down’ the prediction, which saw players mock him in the dressing room at Wembley by dancing around singing, ‘There’s only one Ian Holloway.’
And Schindler, who scored the penalty that got Huddersfield to the promised land, believes the same spirit could see them defy many people’s thoughts on where they will finish again.
He said: “Last season we were written off and if I remember some coaches said we would even go down.
“Obviously you respect their opinions but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it because we’re in a position now where we can show them that they’re wrong.
“We can use it as motivation when people write us off.”
Schindler is a hero in Huddersfield for his spot kick heroics but he revealed he does have some blanks in his mind about that fateful moment.
The German cannot remember whose miss set up his moment – for the record, it was Reading’s Jordan Obita.
Schindler, 27, admitted: “With the penalty, I was so focussed and full of adrenaline I can’t even remember the name of the player who missed the penalty just before mine.
“But as soon as he missed I took a deep breath and thought, ‘I can do this now, this is my moment.’”