Cape Town – West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic believes the fact that the club has managed to retain the services of Dimitri Payet shows the club is an attractive prospect to potential new signings.
Advertisement
Cheikhou Koyate and Pedro Obiang are available for West Ham’s clash with Chelsea on Monday, but Dimitri Payet may not be fit to start.
The former Juventus and Bari boss lost only two games in pre-season, as the Blues succumbed to defeats against Real Madrid and Rapid Vienna, but won their games against Liverpool, AC Milan and Werder Bremen.
And Bilic feels that Payet’s decision not to seek a move elsewhere has helped attract new players to the club. The fact that Ayew wanted to join, rather than having to be persuaded, was a big factor in the club’s decision.
“Change the principles and nature of the game”.
Add to that earlier deals for Havard Nordtveit, Sofiane Feghouli, Gokhan Tore, Ashley Fletcher and the permanent signing of last season’s loanee Manuel Lanzini and Bilic has certainly added quality to his ranks.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek told the club’s website: “The whole squad have been working really hard, we all put in the work and we’re ready to go on Monday”.
[But] we know we can compete with the big boys, we did that a year ago.
“I am sure that Ayew will bring more quality”. We need a squad but I’m happy. “We have signed a few and we are happy with that”.
Advertisement
According to a report from the Guardian, the loan signing of Calleri will cost West Ham £4m and is the result of a personal agreement between co-chairman David Sullivan and influential agent Jonathan Barnett.
