I could see that Lamps would shine
Bilic: It is not about revenge
LIKE Harry Redknapp, Grant McCann knew Frank Lampard was destined for greatness.
Redknapp was West Ham manager in the mid-Nineties when he famously predicted the young Lampard would “go right to the top” in response to fans’ criticism he wasn’t good enough.
McCann, now Hull boss, arrived at Upton Park as a 16-year-old from Belfast and knew Lampard would have a stellar career.
McCann says accusations of nepotism, because Lampard’s uncle was manager and his dad, Frank snr, was assistant coach, motivated the midfielder to succeed.
“I think he had a point to prove because some fans thought he was only in the team because of his father and his uncle,” McCann said ahead of their reunion this evening.
“There’s that clip of Harry at a fans’ forum saying he would go right to the top. That’s what maybe kicked Frank on.
“He did lots of extra work, and every afternoon he used to put spikes on and just run.
“As soon as he broke into the team, he just got better and better and better. He proved all those fans wrong.”
McCann lived in digs in Romford with Michael Carrick and said he spent much of his first year at West Ham crying because he was homesick.
“It was really hard,” he said. “It was 1996 when we didn’t really have mobile phones. I stayed in digs with Michael Carrick and we had to set the
SLAVEN BILIC goes back to West Ham insisting he is “not bitter” about being sacked as manager three years ago.
Bilic, right, takes Championship leaders West Brom to his old stamping ground with revenge far from his mind. “The end was not good, of table and stuff. It seemed strict, but it made us grow up. It definitely shaped me as a person.”
McCann was also moulded by his upbringing in the Protestant working-class Sandy Row during the Troubles, and he narrowly escaped an IRA bomb attack on the nearby Europa Hotel in 1993.
“We missed that by seconds,” he said. “All the windows of my mum’s house came in.
“That’s the way it was back then. Has it made me tougher? I don’t know, but it’s given me a good lesson.” McCann said he was “fiery” as a young player at West Ham and took exception to being dropped in 2001 after scoring an own-goal in a 7-1 defeat at Blackburn.
“Glenn Roeder said he wasn’t going to involve me in the next game because he thought the fans would get on my back,” he said. “Because I was quite, what’s the word, fiery, I said, ‘OK, sell me then’. I’m good friends with Glenn and we laugh about it now, but that’s the way I was back then.”
McCann, who took over at Hull in June, is helping to unite the club. Controversial owners the Allams are back watching matches.
“The owners are coming back to games,” the manager said. “The club are doing initiatives to reach out to fans, so I feel we’re beginning to bring it all back together again.”
Jarrod Bowen to score first course,” he said. “Only for the very few is the end good or great.
“I’m not bitter or sour about it, but I’d be lying if I said it’s just an ordinary game. It’s a
Premier League side against our lower-league team.
“They will be in the dressing room being told, ‘Listen, you guys are targets for them’.
“We are position.” in that