Manuel Pellegrini is refusing to put a limit on West Ham’s ambition this season.
The Hammers go into the new season targeting a place in Europe and Pellegrini says anything is possible with the exciting squad he has built at the London Stadium.
West Ham will hand £45million club-record signing Sebastien Haller and £24m signing Pablo Fornals their debuts against Manchester City on Saturday.
Optimism is high going into the new season and Pellegrini believes he now has a squad to deliver the vision he set out for West Ham when he took over last summer.
Pellegrini said: “I never start with a target before the start of the season. You must have the ambition and mentality that you can win every game that you play. After that you can see how many points you will have.
“I always have the example of Leicester. Maybe they never believed they could beat the clubs to the title, but they did it because they worked game-by-game with players in a good performance, in a good moment. After that you will see how many points you have.”
Pellegrini sees no reason why West Ham should not target breaking into the top six this season, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in a period of transition.
“At least you must have the ambition to do it,” said Pellegrini. “Not only West Ham and Everton, but Leicester won the league a couple of years ago. Wolves are demonstrating every year that they are improving. There are four or five teams. Bournemouth also play very well with Watford. There are a lot of teams who have the same target as we have.”
Expectations are high at West Ham but that could bring an added pressure.
“That is my way of thinking,” said Pellegrini. “In professional football you must always play under pressure. You must always have a winning mentality when you are a big team. West Ham always play with 60,000 behind us. We are not a club that plays with 30,000 people behind us. So for me it is impossible not to think in that way.
“That does not mean we are going right into the Champions League but in every game we must be able to beat our rival if we play the way we can.”
While some clubs had a frantic deadline day this week, West Ham completed their main business early in a clear sign of how well the new transfer structure at the club is working.
Director of football Mario Husillos works closely with Pellegrini and co-chairman David Sullivan works closely with the pair as part of a long-term strategy.
West Ham had a productive summer bringing in Haller and Fornals - two exciting players – as well as Albian Ajeti, Goncalo Cardoso as well as back-up goalkeepers Roberto and David Martin. Pellegrini believes the club's new structure is working well.
“Yes,” he said. “We started working with the owners and the sporting directors when we finished last season. We knew some players would not continue here. We knew we needed young players.
“We tried to make a mix and have a competitive squad. And also players like Cardoso and Ajeti, and to bring to the first-team Ben Johnson to continue working for the future and not just this season.
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