Any injury updates?
Injury updates, we have one or two knocks and niggles, we are still trying to get Arthur Masuaku back from a knee problem. Apart from that, I think we’re pretty much okay, one or two knocks and niggles but everyone else seems okay.
You will have 60,000 fans in the place for the first time in a long time?
Yes, we can’t wait. We’ve been so desperate to get supporters back, we have one of the biggest stadiums in the country and to get 60,000 of them back will be fantastic, and hopefully, they are coming back to watch a good team as well which has got a lot of confidence. We are thrilled and I am sure all the supporters who have been sitting at home and watching the games with no crowds and no atmosphere will be glad to be back as well so we are looking forward to getting them all in there.
Michail Antonio scored in both his last two starts against Leicester so if he does that, again, he’ll get himself into the record books as West Ham’s [Premier League] top scorer.
Yeah he is certainly closing in on it now, he’s joint top and because of that I am sure Micky will break the record if it happens this Monday night it would be great but if it is not this Monday I am sure it will be in the near future.
Can I just ask a quick question about Said Benrahma, another assist and the goal last time out, it must be pleasing to see how he’s playing at the moment?
Yeah, it’s really good because you know we brought him to get assists and to get goals as well so it is great he has started the season in such good form. He was in good form in pre-season when he came back from international games and is taking that into the Premier League games at the moment. It is still new for him, he had his opening season last year and he is going to look to improve again and if he keeps at this level then he is going to be happy.
And obviously, if he does keep playing at that level it lessens the need for Jesse Lingard but can I ask you the traditional Jesse Lingard question? Stuart Pearce went on to national radio and gave an open invite to come back to West Ham on Monday, I guess you could have done without that?
No, Pearcey is a great spokesman don’t worry about that, Pearcey knows what he’s doing. Of course, we really enjoyed having Jesse [Lingard] but Jesse is a Manchester United player and the questions are not for me but are for Manchester United. We enjoyed having him and if the opportunity arose for us to get Jesse then we would have an interest but in my mind, he is at Manchester United and it is not for us to discuss
It does seem like that is a question if you believe reports that he himself is asking of Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] what is his role, if any, in the coming season?
Well, I don’t know about that and as I said before that will be a question for Manchester United, not for us.
Obviously with the deadline approaching, 10 days away now I’m sure you’re pleased to hear. Do you think you’ll see any more business between now and then?
Yeah, I do, I hope to be able to do some more business. We have been trying hard and we are trying to add to a good group of players and get ourselves some more options. We know we have a challenging season ahead of us, an exciting one and I hope we are able to do something but in this business, there are no guarantees.
Denis Law I am sure in your time in football you have come across him, a fellow Scotsman as well, what are your thoughts on the announcement that he’s made this week?
I’m really, really sad and disappointed to hear. Denis Law was and is a great man. He treated me so well at Manchester United, he took time to talk to me and I have been at quite a few functions with him and his daughter and I’ve got to say they are a great family. Denis himself was a great player, every Scotsman was brought up with Denis Law, talking about him but I had a chance to get to know Denis and he was a brilliant, brilliant guy, he really is and it’s sad to hear. But I think he’s doing so much for people with Alzheimer’s / dementia and I think from that point of view it is great a credit, and probably no surprise to the people who know the class that Denis Law’s got.
I just want to go back to Michail Antonio and if he were to break that record on Monday, how much of an achievement would it be given that he’s not a traditional striker and he has played in different positions before?
Yeah, I think Mick will see it as a big and so he should do because West Ham, if you look through the eras, have had so many great players so I think that for Micky to have the chance to do it having started as a winger and then full-back and wing-back for this period in his career he is a centre-forward so I hope he gets in front by about 20 or 30 goals ahead of Paolo Di Canio. I hope he gets 20 or 30 ahead of him and makes it very difficult for anyone to catch.
We saw the way that Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio linked up against Newcastle, of course, they set each other up for their respective goals. How positive are you about that sort of blossoming on-field relationship?
I am positive about them blossoming as individuals, and if they can do together as a partnership even better. There will be times when we play them together and times when we play Said [Benrahma] in different roles as well but overall we are really pleased with Said. We know what Antonio is capable of, Said is the one who we brought a year ago to give us goals and assists and he certainly showed it in pre-season and he has started well in the Premier League, which is great for us.
Fans of course are going to be back inside the London Stadium for that game, just firstly how excited are you to see them all back in?
Thrilled. It’s been something we’ve been waiting on. For a football supporter, you can’t wait to get to the games, to get back into a full stadium to get all the crowd back will be great. As well as that they are coming back to watch a much-improved team as well so I hope we can give them something to shout about and they get right behind the players because the players have done a great job in the past 18 months.
Last weekend there were six home wins in the Premier League, do you think that this season we’ll see the pendulum swing back in favour of home teams?
I think it’s a good point and I think it could happen. We saw last year so many away teams winning and we put it down to not having supporters in the ground maybe less pressure on the referees, so it will be interested to see. Certainly, we had a great start last week winning away from home, soo, hopefully now we can turn the London Stadium into a really fruitful place for us. We had a good record there last year, we are starting to grow into it, playing there and getting used to it and I am looking forward to getting supporters back to help us along as well.
A question on Jamie Vardy he was a hero for Leicester in their win against Wolves last weekend. Is he the sort of player that you have to try and create a specific plan to try and stop or is it a case of collective defending across the board?
I think you have to be collectively trying to look after Jamie Vardy. He is a terrific player and looks as if he is getting better. I like him, I like the way he goes about his business, he looks as if he is a team player as well and does the work for the team but he comes up with the good and the goals.
You were the only team to do the Premier League double over Leicester last season, how pleasing is that and how confident does that make you going into playing them on Monday?
Well, I would not say it makes me any more confident because of what we’ve done last year now we’ve moved to a new season, but I think that was a great achievement in itself because Leicester are a terrific team. Brendan Rodgers has done a great job and he has got them playing really well. They have just won the Community Shield so, I have to say that I think beating them last year was a great achievement for us and they were big important games for us because we were on the tail of Leicester for a long part of the season.
On the subject of fans coming back. There were a few people who suggested that maybe West Ham played better because there weren’t fans there and maybe they didn’t feel the pressure that sometimes players can feel from a crowd who might be impatient or annoyed by circumstances during the game. I wonder what your thoughts are on that and whether or not you think that some of your team actually perform better when there weren’t supporters there?
Well if I am a West Ham supporter I am taking that as criticism and I’m going to prove [to] you, that is not the case and the team will thrive and we do support the team greatly. It is going to be interesting to see. We played very well last year during lockdown, I believe we will continue to play well with a crowd or without a crowd but I think that the crowd can make a big difference. We will have 60,000 people back in the stadium and I’m expecting them to get right behind the team and show their support.
You were certainly entertaining last season and I think the first game of this season demonstrated that that’s going to continue. Are you going to remain the West Ham team that just scores more goals than the other side?
I hope we are the West Ham team that wins more than the other teams, to be honest. I would like that more than anything, I would like to be a team of winners. I would like us to be winning more games and we lose. If we can do that in an entertaining fashion, score lots of goals I will be thrilled to do it but ultimately winning is my goal and we are going to try and collect as many points as we can.
