Alvaro Arbeloa admits he spoke to former Real Madrid teammates about Slaven Bilic before joining West Ham.

Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic both had high praise for their former Croatia coach.

"I was talking with Luka and Mateo and they told me good things about the coach, so I want to work with him and hopefully I can learn a lot of things," Arbeloa told the London club's website.

"Slaven [Bilic] wants to see me training as soon as possible," the right-back added, although he admitted that it may take him two or three weeks to return to full match fitness."