West Ham manager, Slaven Bilic has condemned the ouster of Sunderland manager, Dick Advocaat, stating that the English Premier League would be worse off as a result.
The 68-year-old Advocaaat stepped down from the job on Sunday, after going eight games without a win in the new season.
The manager, who took over from Gus Poyet less than seven months ago, was able to rescue the team from relegation close to the end of the 2014/2015 league season.
Bilic said: “I told him (Advocaat) I would like (him) to stay. You saw on the touchline he is a man full of energy and passion. The Premier League will be worse off without him.”
“He is a man of knowledge and his experience at different clubs in different countries and at international level is unbelievable,” the Croatian said of Advocaat.
Advocaat had initially expressed his desire to retire if Sunderland survived the Premier League relegation battle but changed his mind after they eventually did.
“It’s his (Advocaat’s) decision, only he knows what he feels. For a man of his experience, he’s basically done everything in different countries, at international level.
“Only he knows but I rate him so much, there aren’t many managers like him,” Bilic noted.
Advocaat has at one point or the other in his illustrious career coached the Dutch national side, Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, Scottish side Rangers and Russian side Zenith St Petersburg.