Cole Fired Up

Joe Cole is in positive mood when it comes to looking forward to next season - and reckons the club will make good progress in the new campaign.

"It's the right time for the club to change," he says, "and we need to play catch up with other clubs with the facilities and that - which is happening.

"It's all on the way up for West Ham and I don't think there is too much for our fans to worry about.

"With the players we've got at the club we have to finish higher than we are, though I'm not making any predictions."

Looking at the shortcomings of last season, he says: "We made stupid defensive individual errors and we can't expect to make as many as we did and expect to win games.

"Once you go two goals down against any side in the Premiership it's hard t get back in the game."

But he stresses there is nothing to be apprehensive about in the new campaign, adding: "A lot of people will make a mountain out of a molehill but there's no problems at West Ham, just a change of a manager - and that's all it is."

And his highlights of last season, domestically?

"The Manchester United game stood out for obvious reasons, and I enjoyed the Southampton game at home as well.

"We showed a bit of battling character in a game we had to win.

"For 60 minutes we had to fight them and I thought 'why didn't we do this all season?'.

"And in the last half an hour we could let the flair show."