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Richard Dunne's anecdotes show Bilic and Sven Goran Eriksson in a great light

It came as no surprise that Slaven Bilic's tenure as West Ham manager came to an end today. The c...



Richard Dunne's anecdotes...
Videos

Richard Dunne's anecdotes show Bilic and Sven Goran Eriksson in a great light

It came as no surprise that Slaven Bilic's tenure as West Ham manager came to an end today.

The club have endured a difficult start to the season but in his reaction to being sacked, the Croatian coach was quite understanding of the decision and his comments were uncomplicated and rich with class, describing it as a "logical step" and wishing the team well.  

Richard Dunne's anecdotes show Bilic and Sven Goran Eriksson in a great light

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Ex-Ireland and Manchester City defender Richard Dunne played with him at Everton between 1997 and 1999 and spoke warmly to us about Bilic as a player and person.

Indeed, he seemed to cut a very relaxed figure as a player.

"He'd get dropped from the team and he'd just walk out straight out and light up a cigarette and just be in the reception having a smoke," said Dunne, before recalling another anecdote from Euro 2012 when Bilic was managing Croatia.

"And when [Croatia] beat us in the Euros, he was into the dressing rooms. He was the first one into the dressing room after the game and he shook all our hands and said, 'unlucky and all the best' and he was genuinely really nice about it." 

Another manager who comes across well was ex-England boss Sven Goran Eriksson who was briefly his manager at Manchester City.

While the Swede's stock fell during his time in charge of England (ironically no England side had gone further in a tournament during the past two decades), Dunne remembered a really sound fella.

"An amazing man. When he comes into the room, he just lights it up and he's just so quiet and polite but to work for he's amazing. Every day in training is different, it's exciting," he said.

"His first speech when he came in was like, 'Right, we're going to try and have a better season than you did last year. I'm only here because you let the last manager down. He said, 'All I want from you is respect. I want you to respect me, each other, cleaning ladies everyone. Just respect and the club will go forward'".

And even after Eriksson parted ways with the club, he made a point of calling Dunne ahead of the next season to wish him luck for the future. 

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