DUTCH AND GO FOR BILIC

SUNDAY MIRROR

club’s website after a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth, and publicly apologised to fans after last week’s 3-2 home defeat to Leicester.

Former Manchester United star Stam has impressed at Reading.

The 44-year-old is only in his first full-time job in management, but he has taken the Royals into the play-off positions in the Championship.

Stam – who held the manager’s job at Dutch club Zwolle on a temporary basis – has signed a two-year deal at the Berkshire club.

If he takes Reading to the play-offs and the brink of a place in the Premier League, it will mark an impressive turnaround for a club that finished 17th in the Championship last season.

The attraction for West Ham is that they would only need to pay compensation for one season’s salary to Reading for the Dutchman.

Stam has expressed frustration at ownership issues at the Madejski Stadium, with Reading’s Thai chiefs previously in talks with a Chinese group, which fell through.

Stam admitted: “I really don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, which I think is very important for myself and for the club.

“If you want to do something, you need to have a plan for what you eventually want to achieve.

“You need to know what you’re going to do with the team, the staff and the structure of the club.”