West Ham Boss Lacks Sympathy for Rafa Benitez & Claims Newcastle 'Tried to Rule the World'

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic appears to have little sympathy for fellow Premier League manager Rafa Benitez at Newcastle, who is frustrated with his side's transfer window.

Benitez has made public his disappointment with his club's work in the transfer window, despite having spent around £35 million on new recruits.

Bilic - whose Hammers side take on Newcastle this weekend - claimed that, despite making high-profile moves for Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic, West Ham have actually spent less money than the Magpies this window.

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As quoted by the Belfast Telegraph ahead of Saturday's clash at St. James Park, Bilic said: "They are not happy with the transfers but they have spent more money than we have spent in this transfer window, if we are talking about net money.

“Okay they maybe needed more to improve because they came from the Championship.

“It is a big club, they were all buzzing. They won the league and now it was: ‘Now we are going to rule the world or whatever’. Maybe they tried. I think they tried.

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“What I think happened is they tried but maybe they were unable to get those targets that they wanted. Like we did last year for example. Maybe they were thinking too big and those players, they didn’t want to come. But I don’t feel that they are not an ambitious club.”

The former Croatia manager also remains confident that West Ham can bring in at least one more recruit before Thursday's deadline, with Sporting CP midfielder William Carvalho on the radar.

Bilic added: "I feel we need someone to boost our team and quality. That's why we also offloaded some players to get the budget for him, or for another player in that position.

"They are not easy to get but we are doing our best and hopefully we will do it".