Jonathan Spector believes West Ham United have 'turned the corner' and are well on the way to securing their Barclays Premier League safety.
The Hammers full-back believes the arrival of new chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold has given the club the stability required to get what had been a difficult season back on track.
Spector also has words of praise for manager Gianfranco Zola in an interview with world-renowned American magazine Sports Illustrated's website ahead of Wednesday night's friendly between the United States and the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
Speaking to sportswriter Grant Wahl - the man who wrote the 2009 New York Times bestseller 'The Beckham Experiment' - Spector, who turned 24 on Monday, revealed he cannot wait to return to league action against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
CLICK HERE TO READ JONATHAN SPECTOR'S SPORTS ILLUSTRATED INTERVIEW
"[The season has] had its ups and downs. It's been good with the new owners coming in and providing a sense of stability. They brought in some strikers, which we were desperate for with the injuries that we had to Carlton Cole and [Guillermo] Franco, who are both back now.
"You can see with our goal-difference it hasn't been as if we've been out of many games. We're obviously in the minus, which is fair because we haven't had a great season. But if you look at the teams around us, we're at minus eight and they're at minus 20, minus 25. We've been in every game but just haven't had results go our way.
"I think we've turned a corner now. We lost to Manchester United last game, but the two before that [Hull City and Birmingham City] were a couple of wins. We're looking forward to the Bolton game [on Saturday]. It's a massive game for us, because after that we've got Chelsea and Arsenal away, which will be difficult to get anything from."
Aside from the arrival of Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold, Spector puts West Ham's recent improvement down to the positivity of manager Zola.
"With Zola, some of his strengths are that he was a fantastic player, everyone knows that. One of the things about him is that he's such a positive person, maybe overly positive at times. But I'd say that's a strength, because you don't get that very often, especially in England, where some of the managers can be very critical. So it's refreshing and nice to have someone like that around."