Kouyate: “We must stay humble”

KouyatewesthamCheikhou Kouyate is set to come face to face with his “big friend” Mame Biram Diouf at Stoke today!

He describes him as “my big friend and my best friend with the national team of Senegal” and adds: “He is a very good striker, a very good player and scores all the time, but I hope he doesn’t score this Saturday!”

Talking to www.whufc.com he added: “I’m happy to be back on the pitch. I didn’t play for one month, which was very bad for me, but I’m back now and I played against Manchester City last week and I’m very happy.

“The wins we have got were good for confidence for the team and we want to keep this same mentality for us and the supporters. We must stay humble and continue to work hard, because this is very important.

“It will not be the same game against Stoke as it was against City, but it will be a tough game because Stoke are a hard team. They have a very strong mentality, but this is an interesting one and one where our concentration is very important.

“Mark Noble and Kevin Nolan have also helped us settle into the team, which is very important for us as players. Football is our lives and it is not easy to come into a new country, because you don’t know the culture or the football, but the other players have helped us.

“It is difficult and it will take a little time for us to settle fully, but we have the support here to do so.”

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon