Pellegrini still eyeing Europe

Manuel Pellegrini has never settled for second best – never mind seventh!

And in one of the darkest periods of the club’s seasons he has made a point of making sure that his own ambitions haven’t dimmed one little bit.

It’s good to gear immediately ahead of such a tough match and with key players missing in Nasri and probably Arnautovic because this is a man with a great deal of confidence in himself and his own abilities.

Us Hammers are so used to seeing things fade and die that keeping the faith is a tough old game but a win tonight will start the self belief flowing again.

We may sit in 12th place but what a change to gear a Hammers boss still making Europe a serious reality – it’s time for some of the belief that followed those first four games when the doubters started to come out in force.

There can be no doubt that tonight’s game can form the basis of a charge towards the end of the season and imagine how three points would hype us up for Palace and Fulham.

Speaking of his hopes on www.whufc.com he said:  “The first target is Europe. It’s a very personal target because it’s something I have always done it. In five years in Villarreal we always played in Europe be that Champions League or Europa League.

“Then we got Malaga into the Champions League, then we played in the Champions League with Real Madrid, and then got Manchester City out of the group stage for the first time.

“So, I don’t imagine not having a mentality of trying for that. I’m certain we will achieve it. If we don’t this season then this is a year of preparing for trying to do it next season. 

“The hardest thing is when you take on a team that is not accustomed to have that as an objective. The mentality is not there because they are not used to it. But it was the same at Villarreal and Malaga.”

 If we look back, when I arrived at Villarreal, if I said I was going to put the club in the Champions League semi-final and finish second in the league they would locked me up as a crazy man.

“If Leicester had said in 2015 that ‘we are going to win the league’ then they would have been crazy, but they did it.

“So, you can make that jump in quality. That’s why I’m here. It’s not about compromising and saying ‘well, they’re the six big teams and we have to stay down here beneath them’.

“If you’re not signing a single player then OK but if there is investment and that investment goes with having a proper idea about how you want to play, then why can’t you make that jump in quality?

“Yes, you need time, but the clock starts ticking from the first minute we arrive. You can’t say ‘no, we need three years to do anything’. You have to try to do it in the first year and if you come up short then you address those shortcomings and go again the second season.

“At Villarreal we were five years in a steady process. We made it to the Europa League, the Champions League. Then you have the challenge of playing on two fronts – how many teams have got excited about playing European football and then gone down trying. But the mentality of the players grows with the club’s expectations.”