West Bromwich Albion manager Slaven Bilic has described their ‘Royal’ visit from the Duke of Cambridge as an ‘honour and a privilege’ as reported on their official website.
The Baggies were selected to help raise awareness of Prince William’s work around mental wellbeing and he promoted his ‘Heads Up’ campaign at the training ground in front of Bilic and the West Brom players.
Bilic described the visit and gave his take on the subject: “It was top. It’s a big honour for us and a big privilege, that from all of the clubs in the UK he chose us.”
“He picked our club, West Brom, to come and share his thoughts on some very, very important things and issues for a younger generation.”
“We spoke about football a bit, but it was more about how we deal with the mental health of the players and as a manager how you approach them, how you talk to them, what matters they have on a daily basis and over the course of a season.”
“He’s very much into it. It’s not shallow conversations, they are proper ones, deep ones. “It’s a privilege to have a person of that stature caring so much in depth about the younger generation.”
“The players’ job is public. People are making comments about them on everything, not only their jobs. The clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the food they are eating and the cars they are driving.”
Bilic believes players need more support surrounding mental health and the impact it can have and the visit from Prince William can only help to provide just that.
