Sofiane Feghouli considered January exit from West Ham until Slaven Bilic convinced him to stay

Sofiane Feghouli has confirmed that he considered leaving West Ham in January before Slaven Bilic convinced him to stay.

As Standard Sport revealed earlier this year Feghouli was the subject of interest from Roma after a frustrating start to life in the Premier League.

However Dimitri Payet’s shock exit from the club forced West Ham to re-evaulate their stance on Feghouli, who they had been open to selling only six months after he joined on a free transfer from Valencia, and the Algerian winger rewarded Slaven Bilic with a string of impressive performances during the closing months of the season.

And Feghouli revealed that showdown talks with Bilic were enough to convince him to spurn interest from elsewhere and commit to West Ham.

“During the winter transfer window, I had quite a few offers, and I decided to have a frank discussion with the manager to see if he counted on me or not since I needed time on the pitch to show what I was worth,” Feghouli told Competition.

“He reassured me, telling me that I shouldn’t leave and that he trusted me. He even told me that he would give me a shot and that I needed to continue to work like I was doing.”

Speaking last month Feghouli admitted that West Ham fans had not seen the best of him in a campaign plagued by injuries but vowed that supporters would see the best of him during his sophomore season.