Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GRANT BAGS A POINT BUT BILIC FUMES
Boss blasts Baggies chiefs for Hegazi sale
SLAVEN BILIC cast major doubt over his future at West Brom by angrily hitting out at the sale of defender Ahmed Hegazi.
The Baggies boss claimed the club had promised the Egypt centre-back would not leave the Hawthorns – then let him join Saudi Arabian side Al-ittihad in a £4million deal just 24 hours before last night’s trip to Brighton.
Speaking after Karlan Grant’s late goal salvaged a draw at the Amex, Bilic said: “I’m very disappointed with the Hegazi departure because I was assured this week he was staying.
“He was meant to play today, he’s a top professional. He had to wait for his chance but because of his know-how... I counted on him big time, to lose him on basically Sunday morning makes me really disappointed.
“Definitely it wasn’t my decision, it wasn’t a football d e ci sion . I ’m ver y di sappointed, we’re a team that needs all our good players.
“He is a player that has know-how i n the Premier League, vast experience, he’s an int ernational , a great professional.
“He played versus Burnley and was training the whole week.
“I had assurances he’d stay so that make s me v er y disappointed that he left.”
Bilic refused to answer a direct question at the video press conference over whether he would consider his future with West Brom.
But he did find time to praise Grant, whose 83rdminute goal, his first for the club in just his second game, cancelled out Jake Livermore’s first-half alf own goal.
Bilic said: “It ’s very important for them to score, centre-forwards.
“The way he e smashed it was as brilliant f or him m and brilliant for us. I’d say it was a fair result but I wanted the game to go on for another 10 minutes for us.”
Brighton must feel disappointed they did not get their first home win of the season because they were much the better team before the break, with Adam Lallana hugely influential. Yet it took Livermore’s own goal to give them a 40th-minute lead. Tariq Lamptey’s low cross caused chaos in the Baggies box and when Branislav Ivanovic thumped an attempted clearance into t eam-mat e Livermore (left) the ball rebounded into the net.
It was all Brighton in the opening 45 minutes yet they just do not seem able to press home their advantage. The turning point was arguably Lallana going off after an hour, with Brighton boss Graham Potter continuing to manage his minutes on the pitch. The home side missed his influence. West Brom had the best of the closing stages but a point means they are still looking for their first win of the season.
Potter said: “We created some good chances in the first half and with a bit more luck we could have had a bigger lead than 1-0.
“Second half, all credit to West Brom . I think they responded to the fact it was maybe only 1-0 and they had a go, they pushed us back, they played better and if we’re hon e st th eir goal was a deserved one and a fair result in the end.
“We created some chances and we need to carry on with that and then we have to learn a bit more and be a little bit better.
“We have had some good performances this season. There is more to do, we have to improve but this was something to learn from and build from.”