West Ham new boy Nikola Vlasic has spoken of his excitement at joining the Hammers and in particular playing alongside a ‘beast’ in Michail Antonio. The £25.7million signing will link up with his new teammates after his international duty with Croatia has ended on Wednesday evening against Slovenia in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The Croatian has recent experience playing opposite a number of Hammers having come up against Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, fellow new signing Alex Kral and Declan Rice during Euro 2020.
Nikola Vlasic said: “I have heard a lot about professional Tomas and Vlad are and how they have this mentality that they are always working hard and I like that because I am the same player. I want to work as hard as possible every day and I’m really professional.”
Vlasic has also been impressed with what he has seen of Rice,
Nikola Vlasic said: “About Declan, he’s West Ham captain and he’s only 22 and he’s in the starting XI in the national team, so I think you don’t need to say too much about him. Everybody knows his quality and how good he is. Hopefully [like them] I can also be in the history books of West Ham and I hope I will put even deeper things in history, so I’m really, really excited.”
Vlasic will be bringing an extra level of attacking threat to the West Ham team with the new No.11 scoring or assisting 54 goals in 108 matches at former club CSKA Moscow. So far the Hammers have not been shy in front of goal this season scoring 10 in just three matches with the attacking quartet of Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals, Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio on fine form.
Nikola Vlasic added: “I see these players – Said, Fornals and Bowen – and they’re really similar, and Michail is a beast and what he’s done over the last year and a half is amazing. The whole team is really solid in midfield and defence and I think we can do great things.”
Vlasic will be heading to England on Thursday and could make his Hammers debut as soon as Saturday when David Moyes takes his team to St Mary’s to face Southampton. Following the Premier League clash, Vlasic will soon be heading back to his native Croatia for West Ham’s first-ever Europa League group game with the Hammers set to take on Dinamo Zagreb on September 16.
