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Slaven Bilic unfazed by challenge of taking hottest of hot seats at Watford

About this time last week, Slaven Bilic was back home in Croatia mulling over his next career move when the phone rang. Now installed as Watford’s 10th permanent manager in the past five years after Rob Edwards was relieved of his duties after 11 matches in charge, the former defender who was part of the historic side that reached the 1998 World Cup semi-finals is certainly not one to shirk a challenge.

“If I wasn’t confident then I wouldn’t be here,” Bilic responded when asked whether he expected to last longer at Vicarage Road than predecessors such as Roy Hodgson, Claudio Ranieri, Xisco Muñoz or Vladimir Ivic. “This job is not about securing a pension or a good payout or whatever. This job is about the opportunity to do something good for me and for the club. That is the only reason I’m here. The pitch is my opportunity now.”

This is Bilic’s third management spell in England after stints at West Ham and West Brom, where he was sacked the day after a 1-1 draw at Manchester City in December 2020 having led them to promotion months earlier. Rather than approaching his task of steering Watford back to the top flight with fear, the 54-year-old – who has not worked since leaving the Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan in January – insisted that he could thrive under the pressure of working for the trigger-happy owner Gino Pozzo.

“You should be on your toes,” Bilic said. “There’s nothing wrong – on the contrary it’s ideal; what I want from my players is to keep them on their toes. It’s a good way. That’s a good thing about Watford. This club is very well-run. I’ve been around here and around Europe and around the world and this club is a very good club.”

He added: “Every owner and board care about their club but they are

Read more on theguardian.com