Tuesday 12 September 2017 10:56, UK
Slaven Bilic insists his relationship with West Ham chairman David Sullivan is fine but feared he was heading for the same fate as sacked Frank de Boer, had his side lost to Huddersfield.
Crystal Palace on Monday sacked De Boer after 77 days and four Premier League games in charge at Selhurst Park after the Eagles lost all of those matches without scoring, in the worst start of any top-flight club in 93 years.
West Ham secured their first league victory and first points of the season with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield on Monday night to ease the pressure on Bilic, who revealed he was concerned for his future following De Boer's dismissal.
"Was De Boer's sacking on my mind? It was, I'm not going to lie. I've been in football since I was 18, so I know," he said.
"To be fair, I came to the zone where I don't care about that, but not in a negative way, I care about the team and that's what I've been focused on.
"The other things are irrelevant."
Addressing his relationship with the Hammers chairman, Bilic denied ever speaking against Sullivan after a recent dispute between the two over West Ham's transfer dealings dominated headlines.
Bilic had previously rejected claims from Sullivan, who was involved in a row with Sporting Lisbon over a failed move for William Carvalho, that he rejected the chance to sign Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak this summer.
"I never said a bad word about the chairman and I never will," said Bilic.
"Yes I said some things - at the end of the day I'm 49 - I said them, and I wasn't drunk!
"I said nothing bad about the chairman, on the contrary, I said we did good business, we wanted one more player and that the story from Sporting is not true as far as I know. I defended him."
