From the Boardroom - David Gold

Gold
I am thrilled that we have been able to complete the signing of Jose Fonte from Southampton.

Jose has a wealth of experience at the highest level and is a proven winner having won the European Championships with Portugal last summer.

We need quality experienced players who have played in the Premier League and will settle in straight away. You can never have too many quality players in the squad and this is an important signing.

He has played over 250 games for Southampton in the top flight and is a seasoned professional who will settle in straight away. This is great news for the Club and he will be a great acquisition.

We have invested a lot of money to secure his signature but we have to face facts that there is inflation in the market and the prices are going up and we have to match the demand.

But we have always said that if the right player becomes available we will do everything to get them into the Club and that has proved to be the case on this occasion.

 

He has played over 250 games for Southampton in the top flight and is a seasoned professional who will settle in straight away. This is great news for the Club and he will be a great acquisition.

David Gold

 

Supporters are constantly asking me how many players will be brought into the squad in January.

I can tell the fans that we have a fantastic team working behind the scenes headed by David Sullivan, who works closely with Slaven Bilic, and they are working tirelessly hard to find players who will improve the team.

People also ask me about a new right back but we cannot forget that we have a talented full-back in Sam Byram who has just returned to first-team action following a lengthy injury, and he looked very impressive in the second half last weekend.

This is a very short window and it is very tough to get the players you want, but we have always said that we will only sign a player if it is the right deal for the football club.

What more can I say about the memorable victory over Crystal Palace last Saturday. Can we have experienced a better second half display?

There was so much expectation on the game with Sam Allardyce coming back to West Ham and all the issues surrounding Dimitri Payet going into the game, but we needed to come away with the three points.

This was one of the biggest victories I have been involved in since I came to the Club.

We saw three incredible goals and three fantastic assists from Michail. Sofiane Feghouli managed to kick-start his season and score his first Premier League goal.

We then witnessed a wonder goal from Andy and it was a sensational strike.

His performance throughout the game was outstanding and he was all over the pitch. It was one of the best performances from a centre-forward I have ever seen.

To cap it off Manuel Lanzini produced a superb finish to make it 3-0 and it was a fantastic performance from everyone in the team.

I was so happy for the players and also for Slaven Bilic who came out and changed the system at half-time and reverted to a 4-4-2 formation.

He pushed Michail upfront and the manager should take a lot of credit for that. The fans certainly showed who they are behind and showed their support towards the manager and the team.

The fans were sensational and you cannot say to me that there is no atmosphere inside London Stadium.

The victory has given renewed hope to the fans and the confidence back to the team. I spoke to Mark Noble before the game and he assured me that the players were determined get the victory and everyone was behind the football club.

We now face a trip to to the north east on Saturday and another tough game against Middlesbrough.

All the away games in the Premier League are difficult, but our confidence is high and there is no reason why we cannot go to Middlesbrough and win the game.

We are back to our best following that second half performance last week and long may that continue.