Winston Reid: West Ham can push for top six next season after learning from nightmare start

EXCLUSIVE
Vaishali Bhardwaj16 February 2017

Winston Reid believes West Ham can draw positives from a difficult first campaign at the London Stadium to challenge for European football next season.

Slaven Bilic’s side are currently 10th in the Premier League after recovering from a poor start in which the club lost five of their opening six games after they had signed 12 players last summer.

But Reid, who has been at West Ham since 2010, is confident the team can become top-six contenders.

“Realistically, it’s ninth, eighth and seventh left to play for this season,” the defender told Standard Sport during West Ham’s Family Fun Day at London Stadium yesterday.

“If we finish around there, considering where we were at the start of the season, then it’ll be acceptable and we can build on from there next season.

“We are still a young squad and the younger players will have learnt from what happened this year. We can take the positives from that.”

West Ham strengthened their squad last month by bringing in Robert Snodgrass from Hull and Jose Fonte from Southampton before selling Dimitri Payet to Marseille for £25million.

Bilic has started Fonte in West Ham’s last three games, while Snodgrass made his debut in West Ham’s defeat by Manchester City before starting in the win over Southampton and the 2-2 draw with West Brom last Saturday.

West Ham United Exclusive Training Photos

1/10

Speaking about the impact of the pair on West Ham’s dressing room following Payet’s acrimonious departure, New Zealand international Reid said: “It always helps to get new players.

“It’s good for the spirit and helps to improve us and freshen up the place as well. It was something we needed and, so far, they’ve been good.”

Reid, 28, praised fellow centre-back Fonte, a Euro 2016 winner with Portugal, for the wealth of experience he has brought to West Ham. Fonte, who made 288 appearances for Southampton, has slotted into the heart of West Ham’s defence alongside Reid.

“He’s a really good guy. He’s settled in well, which is important,” Reid said. “He’ll be a big part of what’s going on here. He’s a big character.

New signings: Robert Snodgrass (left) and Jose Fonte 
West Ham United via Getty Images

“It takes time to find out about how you each move but we’re both experienced and he’s a good communicator.

“Robert Snodgrass has also got a lot of experience in the league. He’s the sort of player we needed — a player who is proven and has scored a lot of goals.”

One player who has been key to West Ham’s recovery is Andy Carroll. The striker has scored four goals in his last four league matches, including a superb acrobatic overhead kick against Crystal Palace last month.

Carroll, who has nine England caps, failed to recover from a minor groin injury to audition for an international recall in front of Gareth Southgate last Saturday.

Reid believes Carroll possesses the quality to make the senior squad. “When fit, Andy is a handful. He always scores goals and works hard,” he said.

“He’s been scoring goals and, when you do that, you’re in with a chance to be called up.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in