Bilic rejects offer of West Brom talks

Slaven Bilic has turned down the chance to become West Bromwich Albion’s new head coach. The 49-year-old former West Ham United manager was approached this week to see whether he wanted to hold talks but is understood to have indicated it is too early for him to return to football.

Albion’s Chinese owner, Guochuan Lai, was interested in speaking to Bilic as he looks to appoint a successor to Tony Pulis, who was sacked on Monday following a dismal run of form and with the fans having turned against him.

Albion want to appoint a manager with Premier League experience. The Croatian is spending time with his family after being sacked by West Ham at the beginning of the month and would like to take some time off until the new year before deciding his next move.

Despite losing his job at West Ham, where he was in the final year of his contract, Bilic did well at the club, steering them to seventh in the league in his first season in charge and 11th in the last campaign.

However, he endured a difficult start to this season and the pressure eventually told with the defeat at home against Liverpool before the last international break.

Another former West Ham manager Alan Pardew is still favourite to take over at the Hawthorns. He has been out of management for 11 months since being sacked by Crystal Palace but had previously worked with Albion’s technical director Nicky Hammond at Reading.

Meanwhile, Pulis’s assistant Gary Megson will take tomorrow’s match at Tottenham Hotspur, which will be his first Premier League fixture in charge since December 2009.

Megson returned to the game this summer after answering an SOS from Pulis but now finds himself as interim manager. Megson, 58, has admitted he finds the situation uncomfortable as he prepares for this weekend’s trip to Wembley.

“This is absolutely not an audition for me and, while everyone aspires to be in the Premier League, this is in the most unfortunate of circumstances,” he said.

“I’ve obviously been out football for some time and this isn’t something I was expecting to happen.

“I was on my way to Corsica on holiday with my wife when Tony called me and asked to come in as his assistant.

“Now we’ve had a chain of events that require me to take charge of the team, for however long it is.

“I’ve taken nearly 700 games as a manager so hopefully West Brom think I know what I’m doing.”