Following Euro 2012, Slaven Bilić packed his bags and moved his managerial skills to Moscow, trading in his six years as Croatia head coach for the Russian Premier League. He brought in defender Vedran Ćorluka from Tottenham and was expected to get new club, Lokomotiv Moscow, into European play.
But it was not meant to be as Lokomotiv finished mid-table and seven points out of a Europa League spot.
Fast forward to June 2013, where Bilić cut his ties with Lokomotiv Moscow; taking his talents to Turkey to coach Istanbul club Besiktas. With only six games remaining in the 2013/14 season, Besiktas have only lost five times and are tied on points with Galatasaray for second place.
The kicker: 1st place club Fenerbahce cannot play in European competition next season due to UEFA sanctioning, meaning if Bilić can get Besiktas to finish second, he will be coaching in the Champions League group stage come September.
Bilić can easily up his own coaching profile with a Champions League appearance and move onto bigger, better things down the road. He was rumored to coach English Premiership club West Ham after his Croatian gig, but ended up in Russia nonetheless.
But the more important question is: will Bilić ever manage Croatia again?
I think we can all safely say, when all is said and done and Bilić has done his rounds in Europe, that he will not only become the manager of Croatia again, but we will all welcome him with open arms.
But what does he need to prove on the European circuit in order to bring something new to Croatia the second time around?
R.I.P. Ultimate Warrior he was also in the WCW to get back at Hogan in that Cage match. One of my favourite’s of all time wrestlers if not favourite. The Warrior smoke was pretty cool.
R.I.P. Warrior..
One of my childhood faves!
First the Undertaker’s “streak” and now this.
Tough week for wrastlin’ fans…
Ultimate Warrior was a strange dude, but entertaining.
I see Brock Lesnar beat the Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Did he do anything as impressive when he was a member of afterschool organized backyard fight club.
@ Ante
Ultimate Warrior is tied with Mr. Perfect for the best skits in WWE history – RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF4ZTcuhixc
I know it has absolutely zero to do with soccer or Croatia but I’m sure most of us are from the same generation so it is with great remorse that I regret to announce that today we lost the Ultimate Warrior.
Man Reus put in an amazing performance at LW against Real. Now if we can get Perisic to play like that a WC victory wouldn’t be out of the question. 🙂
I wouldn’t worry about Stimac, he is starting a computer company called StiMac. Corluka will be providing the virus protection software.
Kerum is counting his money. Go to Split and you will see.
Stimac will find his way to make money in Cro soccer. People like him always do. I’m hoping HRT will hire him again to be the analyst for Cro games. I just want to see that for the awkwardness it would create when he is interviewing Kovac or his former players after games. But, nobody has a sense of humor in Cro.
Stimac is walking around with a rosary in his hand looking for the next person he can rob, scheme, and humiliate.
I wonder what Stimac is doing now?
This coaching gig ruined him. Whatever power or influence this criminal had before, is lost through this humiliation.
It’s like Sean Penn’s character (Mickey Cohen) in the movie Gangster Squad. Once you’ve been humiliated like this, you lose whatever power you may have had.
Same thing as Zeljko Kerum. Where’s that guy now?
stop with this ridiculous Bilic talk, Kovac is the new coach, he will do better, just wait and see
Bilic was well respected in the locker room and throughout the soccer world. Never said anything stupid or controversial and players wanted to play for him. I think it will be the same with Kovac. Well respected and understands what goes on in a players mind. On the other hand, look at Stimac and his antics. Telling a team that they will not cross the half way line all game than losing 1-0 at home, or telling the world the return leg is gonna be a training session. It was our talent that got the early results, but once a coach loses his locker room, all the talent in the world is useless.
^ ^
Woops, meant “Cico-ism”
Cico-sim of the day: “Doofustest”
U Guy’s wanted him gone back in the Day ! Now U all Love him !! Ha ha ha . What a Joke Most of U Guy’s are !! He was a good coach & player for the Most Loved team in Croatia ,Our Hajduk ! Now U want him back ? Pizdo – Doofustest !! I allways told U he is Good , but U gov’s are too Smart ! Now Live With it !Bog , Hrvati , USA , Bilic , Hajduk , i HNS !!!
Modric was easily Madrid’s MOTM today, can’t really fault him for much if anything today.
Ziva- the ball carrier took a shot, there were 4 Madrid players in the box and the outside Dortmund player ( #10 Henrik Mkhitaryan) didn’t get the ball…if anything he would have been Modric’s responsibility and not the goal scorer.
I am not starting any controversry. I saw two replays of Dortmund’s second goal and on one of the replays it looked like Modric gave up on tracking back while the guy who scored came in from Modric’s side.
It doesn’t take anything away from how he played, just noticed that he didn’t track back all the way.
Assuming Barca takes care of business tomorrow, which is a big IF. I’d like to see a semi paring of Chelsea – Barca and Real Madrid – Bayern.
Although Mourinsho going back to fave Real Madrid would be good TV.
Thats a bit of a reach Ziva. Usually im a fan of your analysis but that one is a little farfetched lol just looking for some controversy. Modric by far Reals best player in the second half. In a game like this you need someone to dictate tempo and if Benzema wasnt such a PANJ, Modric wouldve had an assit or two as well.
Terrible defending from Real and Modric on that second goal. I know Reus wasn’t his man, but he failed to make the run towards goal and stopped 20 yards out.
jm- agreed… no argument from me on that!
Dortmund up 2-0…If Di Maria buries the PK this was all over. Now all to play for.
How about Tudor?
@ slovonac: the reason i just say bilic was solid rather than great is the following:
1) Turkey Euro 2008: obviously what happened was a little flukey but he Bilic definitely did not help the situation
2) MIss World Cup 2010: Had injuries, but never even competitive vs England. Failed to even claim second place
3) Rough qualifying campaign for Euro 2012. Never threatened Greece
4) After Euro 2008, no win against a high quality opponent that I can think of
Bilic’s best post 2008 moments though were the Turkey playoff and Euro 2012 where his tactics seemed to genuinely contribute to the results
let’s not forget we did not make the world cup with Bilic in 2010, so he is still considered a success, yeah
Problem with the repka is they keep slecting coaches with no experience.
Bilic we can probably call a success. SInce 98, he had us playing our best and most attractive style in 08.
Strucnjak Stimac was a complete miss and thank god it was. Remember, we had short-term pain with him, but it resulted in a gain, hopefully long-term.
Jury is still out on Kovac. Waiting to see how he handles a situation when the other team has more talent and we will need to have some tactical advantages. Also, will he be able to make adjustments and have the players prepared to make adjustment when we struggle early on into a game. Nobody knows with Kovac. And that is the problem, we keep hiring coaches who lack experience.
talking about coaching…I think Jarni got his walking papers after 6 games coaching Sarajevo!
Coaching is a personal thing not a national thing…we’ve had many great coaches we just are infected with internal politics. back in ’98 it was supposed to be Tomislav Ivic as the head coach and yet Blazevic got the job…nobody knows what the outcome would have been if Ivic coached the team, Ciro did well…but he was always known as a master motivator rather than a coach of tactics and formations!
There will always be outside influence, point of view and other factors that influence any coach, I just hope Kovac is more influenced on his experience and making decisions based on good facts rather than a “hunch”…
Coaching really isn’t our forte. A country that produces naturally talented players, won’t produce good coaches (as they relied on their talent during their playing careers).
So whoever we pick (Kovač, Bilić, Prosinečki, etc)… We’ll always run into the same issue of not really knowing if our team can max out on their potential as we will always have unproven coaches.
Bilic did more than a solid job for much of his time as head coach although I felt he stopped looking for solutions with player personnel and there wasn’t much competition for jobs. When he first started he made Eduardo, Modric, Corluka and a few others the core…after them not much…
Croatians will always complain…its part of who we are…ever hear of “Ziva Istina”? Look at his comments!
Bilic was the most successful and credible coach Croatia has had thus far…no two ways about it!
i liked bilic. seemed like a good guy. but lets not overly heap praise on him as a manager when there was non stop calling for him to be fired during most of his campaign with the exception of 2008. in the end, he did a solid job and given his circumstances as an inexperienced coach, one could even argue a very good job. not a great job. he’s still young though, so i would gladly welcome him back down the road as bilic 2.0 after years of club experience
Bilic is a good coach although at times I felt he over analyzed certain situations or games. Being a good coach isn’t easy, you are dealing with several different personalities, some cultural differences and some communication differences as well, some guys respond differently to their coach. This newer generation is more complex, Fabio Capello had a hell of a time with the England squad, they are all very wealthy players and didn’t respond to his very disciplined approach at coaching, eventually the biggest challenge becomes certain players vs the coach. In Bilic’s case, I think his style wasn’t as effective in Russia, I don’t think its all on him, players have the responsibility to follow his coaching and when things fall apart its easy to blame the coach…far different than 30 years ago!
http://www.football-espana.net/41078/modric-maligned-majestic
@Ziva. I always liked Prosinecki when he was part of Bilic’s staff. I agree with you on that observation.
Hard to project, but do you think he would be successful?
I’m honestly in the dark on this one but does anyone know off hand what Prosinecki is doing now? I do seem to recall he was shown the door in his last gig. If he was out of work, why not add him to the current staff?
after Kovac they should give it to Prosinecki for a shot, he would do better
Bilic will be back as an NT coach one day…. Kovac will last a few cycles maybe and then try his hand at a club… I see Bilic back in the fold down the line for sure once Mamic is out of power.
I rememeber when Bilic was fired from lokomotiv and one of the star players indicated he was the worse coach he ever played for. I hope Bilic does well in Turkey but prefer he stay away from the national team.
you stupid idiots are missing the whole point
BILIC is the greatest musician in the entire EARTH-THING and that’s why he got us to play good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrMIPC9mK0
Lokomotiv are the same this year (player and club wise). Safe to say that they just fell apart last season, and it’d be hard to argue that it wasn’t because of Bilic. It was his first real club and Russian league has a unique playing style, he was just unable to really build a team (probably because he had a hard time learning the language). These are all the traits of a young manager. Bilic is a huge prospect though, he has that mentality and drive seen in top managers today, and only in his 40’s he’s bound to become a CL winning coach if he stays in the game for the next 10-20 years or more.
Or maybe he just had a really particular way of getting us to play. Either way everyone would def welcome him again with open arms. He doesn’t need to prove anything in Europe; we were a monster of a team while playing under him, and the way he built our players and organized a style of play against top teams (especially Spain and Germany) was pure genius.
i don’t follow the Russian league. Does Lokomotiv have the same players as last year or did they bring in new players. Also, were they injured last year and healthier this year? That could be a reason. Not sure if it is, but could be.
If Mamic wasn’t running the show I think we would have already had Prosinecki as the coach of the repka.
I would also like to add that since Bilic left Lokomotiv, they are now in first place. Whether it’s just a coincidence or it has something to do with Bilic, well, I’ll let you decide.
Anyway, I hope Bilic finishes second and gets into the CL. It would boost his credentials.