Pelle claims Upton Park was ‘too small for this club’

Manuel Pellegrini will no doubt split opinion among the fan base but his view of Upton Park is that it “was too small” for West Ham United.

Thus far he has steered away from making any comments on what remains a sensitive subject among many fans as he is clearly delighted with the atmosphere being generated from the 60k capacity London Stadium.

A recent survey showed too that more fans are coming round to the stadium with various improvements in people’s views demonstrated in various areas.

Given we are on an unbeaten run of seven games at home – with five wins along the way – it’s easy to understand how and why the manager has arrived at his view..

And he wants the fans to fire up the squad again today as the team bid for a victory in the bid to each Europe – a view he has repeated over and over.

He explained to reporters: “Most of those games we won at home the atmosphere was very good. Fans were enjoying the game, they were all involved, supporting the team, not thinking or talking or acting like what happened last season.

“Maybe they all realise this team needs a big stadium. The old stadium I know was a beautiful stadium but it was too small for this team.

Just 32,000 people is not enough for West Ham – now we have 60,000 people at every game we play. Maybe they understand, also they are creating the atmosphere we see in every game.