Rudi Garcia, who joined French side Marseille this week, has claimed that he rejected an offer from West Ham to bring him to the London Stadium. Slaven Bilic remains as manager, but it appears that the owners were thinking of other plans during the Hammers' slump in form recently.
Garcia comes to Marseille from Roma, but was approached by West Ham after the London side lost five of their opening eight games. They are currently wallowing in fifteenth place in the Premier League table.
Rudi Garcia claims he rejected offer to replace Slaven Bilic at West Ham THIS weekhttps://t.co/CpeIbznmcc pic.twitter.com/IHvDj1ChTe
"Obviously. I studied everything. Whether the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga. I went where I was wanted the most." Garcia said, when asked by L'Equipe if he had considered the offer.
"I had a lot of proposals. My goal was to stay in a major European league or take a national team capable of winning the next World Cup."
"I am happy to be here. It is a great challenge, a new adventure, with a different direction."
"It is not starting from scratch, but there is much to build, and I like that.At all other clubs, I'd arrived as a replacement for a manager that had bad results. Here, this is not the case."
Garcia had also been approached by the Belgium national team, before Roberto Martinez was ultimately picked.
David Moyes is unbeaten in his last 12 #PL meetings with West Ham #WHUSUN pic.twitter.com/9Ackm3EjhP
West Ham, who take on Sunderland on Saturday, turned their fortunes around with a win at Crystal Palace last Saturday. It is interesting to observe that the board were indeed ready to sack Bilic so quickly after their disappointing start.