The press calls him difficult. That is the consistent word across three federations and a decade.
The press is also, in this case, wrong.
Vahid Halilhodžić has been fired by Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Japan, and Morocco. He has also taken three of those teams to World Cups. His record of qualification across multiple federations is one of the strongest in international football. When he is fired, he is fired by federations, not by players. When players speak about him, they speak about respect, intensity, and clarity of demand.
The framing in European press is consistent. Difficult man. Confrontational. Clashes with stars. The implication is always that he is the problem.
The actual pattern is that he refuses to select players he does not trust, regardless of their European club status. He refused to play Nabil Bentaleb. He refused to play Hakim Ziyech. He refused to play Riyad Mahrez during the qualifying campaign for 2018. In every case the European press treated his decision as evidence of dysfunction rather than evidence of standards.
He coaches like a manager from an older era. He does not need to be loved. He needs the team to win. When he wins, the federation rewrites his deal. When he stumbles, the federation finds a star player to blame him for upsetting, and uses that as pretext.
In ten years, when somebody writes the proper history of African football management, Vahid Halilhodžić will be in the first chapter. Right now, he is just considered difficult.