West Ham round-up: Bilic hit with fine; Gold hits out at midfielder; Fonte talks about move

Slaven Bilic and his assistant Nikola Jurcevic have both been fined £8,000 each for their behaviour on the touchline in their draw with West Brom at the London Stadium, say BBC Sport. Both accepted a charge of improper conduct as they lost their cool at referee Michael Oliver.

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Fortunately for the club, neither was punished with a touchline ban and both will be on the bench for their visit to Watford next weekend after an FA Cup break.

That won’t help make David Gold happy, though, after the co-owner discussed his frustrations regarding the sale of Dimitri Payet. Gold told Sky Sports:

“My only regret I suppose is that he was sold for £25m and I think he was worth more. I think in an open market he would have fetched £30-35m. I think the fans feel a bit cheated and that they didn’t get full value. He insisted on only going to Marseille. It was one club bidding, so that depressed the price. It was £25m instead of maybe £35m. I don’t think he handled it very well. Does anybody? I suppose the answer is we are disappointed but we have to move on. There is life after Dimitri Payet.”

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However, with the situation a real mess, most fans are just relieved to have Payet off of the club’s books and sold for a reasonable fee. Whilst it may not have been as much as they could have hoped for, £25 million for a 29-year-old signed for less than half that fee only a year before represents good business.

Part of that money was reinvested in the purchase of Southampton defender Jose Fonte. Fonte revealed his feelings on the move to Sky Sports:

“In life you need new challenges and I look forward to the challenges ahead. It’s a massive club. There is great passion and have seen it through the years at the old ground [Upton Park]. It was fantastic to play here and the atmosphere. Hopefully I will succeed.”

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The former Saints captain has had a steady start to life in the capital, improving since his nightmare debut defeat to Manchester City when the Hammers were thrashed by the Citizens.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Craig Ballantyne.