Slaven Bilic rejects chance to hold talks with West Brom over vacant managers job because he wants time away from the game
Baggies owner Guochuan Lai could now turn his attentions to another ex-Hammers boss in Alan Pardew
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SLAVEN BILIC has turned down an approach to speak to West Brom about the vacant job at The Hawthorns.
Baggies owner Guochuan Lai was interested in talking to the ex-West Ham boss after axing Tony Pulis this week.
But the Croatian, currently spending time with his family after leaving the Hammers at the beginning of the month, has indicated to The Baggies it is too early for him to return to football.
The 49-year-old ideally would like a proper break until the New Year.
Bilic, who played in the Premier League for Everton and West Ham, made his name as a manager by leading Croatia to a 3-2 victory against Steve McClaren's England at Wembley in 2007.
After spells in Russia and Turkey, he joined West Ham in 2015 and finished seventh and 11th in his first two seasons before a difficult start to the current campaign resulted in him losing his job.
Another ex-West Ham boss Alan Pardew is favourite to take over at West Brom.
Pards has been out of management for 11 months since being sacked by Crystal Palace and previously worked with Albion's technical director Nicky Hammond at Reading.
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Lai's approach to Bilic shows the Chinese owner has been looking at different options before making his first managerial appointment having bought the club in the summer.
Meanwhile West Brom coach Ben Garner has incredibly been banished from the training ground as a condition of Gary Megson taking charge.
Megson and Garner have very different methods of working, with the caretaker boss ensuring his colleague stays away.
