“You know the chairman. When the player comes and when he is on one sort of contract and he is not very well known, and he plays good the chairman is very happy to give him a new contract. So it will sooner or later happen with Manuel if he continues to be the kind of player he has been for us.”
Bilic faced a kind-of similar situation with Dimitri Payet after the Frenchman forced his way back to Marseille last season, but Bilic insisted that same issue will not be repeated this time around.
“The Payet situation was different, Payet was older, Lanzini is 24. Look in one hand we can’t expect the players to stay forever. Nowadays nobody is staying. But all I’m saying is I hope he stays for this season. The point is now and long term-ish, he’s very happy.”
Lanzini scored an impressive eight goals in a season where West Ham failed miserably and finished outside top ten. He missed the 2017/18 season opener against Manchester United due to an injury.