West Ham Chairman David Sullivan has told WHUFC.com that is it is extremely unlikely to finish third or forth but still possible.
“I must sound like a broken record, but when you lose five forwards – and I don’t even include Victor Moses in that – it’s going to hurt any team.”
“In the first half against Southampton we simply weren’t good enough but in the second half we made a couple of changes and switched the full backs. The manager should be complimented on how he changed things at half time and did a wonderful job.”
“It was a very exciting second half and I would like to thank the supporters that really got behind the team as they make a really big difference. It felt like one of those night games from ten or twenty years ago under lights as it was an incredible atmosphere towards the end of the game.”
“We had good chances in the second half to score a lot more goals and Andy Carroll scored the most wonderful header. Not many people would have been able to score in the way that he did. He headed it with power away from the goalkeeper, who was in that corner of the goal so it was by no means an easy chance.Michail Antonio is now getting back to fitness and people are starting to see why we bought him.”
“He’s a great member of our team and our squad and it shows why the manager would not loan him out when six Championship clubs came in for him before the loan window shut four or five weeks ago. And thank goodness we didn’t as we need him.”
“We were due a bit of luck. Whether his goal was a bit of luck or just pure determination is up for debate.I’ve never seen a player try so hard and I take my hat off to the people that voted him man of the match. I think everyone really was a man of the match for the second half performance.When Manuel Lanzini came on with Andy it made a real difference to the team. And when Dimitri Payet comes back, most likely for the Liverpool game, and Diafra Sakho comes back we’ll go up another level as well.
Even though we’ve only lost four games all season, with all of the draws you start to look down the table and start to worry.”
“We can now start to look up again and string a few wins together. Looking ahead to 2016 we’ve now got 19 games to go and as I said in the summer anything is possible. We know if we play to our maximum then there is not a team in this division we cannot beat. I think it’s extremely unlikely we could finish third or fourth but it’s possible. I think it’s unlikely we’ll win the FA Cup but it’s possible if you get the right draw and that’s the mentality we must have.Finally, I really enjoyed meeting some of the people that our outstanding Foundation have been helping over the Christmas period as part of a special project that I funded with the homeless charity Crisis.I personally paid for the week-long scheme, which saw Foundation coaches delivering fun football sessions, as well as supplying West Ham kit and match day tickets for the meeting with Southampton.I was delighted we could do something to help make their Christmas more enjoyable.Thanks again for your support and I wish you happy and prosperous start to 2016.”