Bilic believes chairmen deserve praise

West Ham are one of the few Premier League clubs with English owners, while earlier this week Chinese businessman Jisheng Gao bought a majority stake in Saturday's opponents Southampton.

The Hammers' joint chairmen often receive heavy criticism from the fans over issues like the move to the London Stadium, media appearances and transfer business

However, the Croatian coach said: "I'm sure they are very appreciated by the fans. The people who live for West Ham know how good the chairmen are for the club and how much they invest.

"It's better for the club to be run by someone who knows the history, the environment, the business part of it, someone who is not going gung-ho.

"Those clubs and those chairmen should be praised," he added. "Because it's not easy to resist those kind of offers. They should at least be appreciated, from the fans and from the whole of football."

Sullivan and Gold have invested heavily this summer, bringing in Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez and they still hold out hope they can agree a deal with Sporting Lisbon for William Carvalho. 

They also tied centre-back Winston Reid down to a new six-year deal on Friday, which would see him at the club until 2023.

West Ham are unable to compete with the inflated fees paid by some major clubs but Bilic maintains that money isn't everything. 

"Not every takeover is like Manchester City, or Paris St Germain, some takeovers didn't go that good," he explained.

"It's not a guarantee, some things you can't buy. You can't buy mentality, you can't buy tradition and you can't buy time.

"I don't care about the others," Bilic said. "But West Ham is on the right way and I think everyone connected with the club knows the chairmen are doing their best within the budget."