West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic admits he previously attempted to sign “eight to ten” of the players that joined Watford this summer.

The Hornets heavily invested in their squad after winning promotion to the Premier League and completed deals for 15 players.

Several of those arrivals have made a positive impact and the Golden Boys have defied expectations to sit 13th in the table after ten matches.

And that hasn’t overly surprised Bilic given the quality Watford acquired in the summer.

He said: “A lot of these players were on our list at Besiktas and West Ham. They’re all good internationals, very experienced, some of them very young with big talent. Maybe eight or ten of them were on the list.”

The Hammers boss, who has guided the Irons to third in the Premier League, also reserved praise for Golden Boys head coach Quique Sanchez Flores.

The Spaniard replaced Slavisa Jokanovic following Watford’s promotion and has unified a squad full of summer signings.

“I rate Quique Flores really highly,” Bilic said. “Not only because of his past as a player and a manager with big clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Valencia but to make a team with about 20 new players in a short amount of time is amazing.

“They look really organised so it’s going to be very difficult and we have to be on top of our game if we are to continue our good run.”

He added: “It only surprises me that how quickly Flores has adapted to English football. They have the more different nationalities than any other team in the league and they look like a team that has been playing together for three or four years. He’s doing a great job.”