Manuel Pellegrini has pledged to delight the West Ham fans and strengthen the squad with ‘four or five’ new signings after being confirmed as their new manager.
The former Villarreal, Real Madrid, Malaga and Manchester City manager has signed a three-year contract at the London Stadium after leaving Chinese Super League club Hebei China Fortune.
The 64-year-old Chilean was in London on Monday for talks with Hammers co-owner David Sullivan and he signed the £5m-a-year deal on Monday night, succeeding David Moyes.
Pellegrini told West Ham’s official website: ‘I’m very happy because I return to a league that, for me, and I always say the same thing, is the best league in the world, and especially because I come here to West Ham because every time I spoke with the owner Mr Sullivan, I always had the feeling that he wants me.
‘I think that West Ham had a difficult season last season and I hope that next season we are going to play football that will delight the fans. I always play attacking football and we must try to reach important targets in the season.
‘Every time you have a meeting you have feelings about whether it was a good meeting or a bad meeting and I had the meeting with him, just talking about football and talking about West Ham.
‘We agreed on a lot of things he wants for this club in the way I think a football club must be managed, so we have a lot of common ideas.’
The new manager said he would attempt to sign four or five players during the close season, adding: ‘I am excited about this project. My mentality is always to have a winning mentality and I will hope that I can repeat here what I did with all my clubs in Europe, where I have always arrived in European competition.
‘I know that this league is very good and it’s not easy to do it, but I think that working all together with the owners, the technical staff and the fans, we have an important power and can think about reaching important targets for the season.
‘I think West Ham has a very good team. I know all of the players and I saw most of the games that they played last season, so I am sure that, with the players we have in this moment in the squad, and bringing maybe another four or five players in, we are going to have a strong team.’
COMMENTS