Demba settling in

If Demba Ba can make half the impact his two heroes made on the Barclays Premier League, West Ham United supporters are in for a treat.

The Senegal striker, who completed a permanent transfer from German club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Friday, named Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba as his footballing idols.

However the 25-year-old, who has signed a contract until summer 2014, wants to forge his own reputation by scoring the goals to keep West Ham in the top-flight.

"Thierry Henry was my hero for a long time and after he left I looked up to Didier Drogba. He is big and powerful and has everything a striker needs and he scores goals.

"I have my qualities and I'm looking to play and enjoy my game and score my goals."

While Ba's individual performances could go a long way to helping the Hammers, he is a team player who believes every squad member has a part to play between now and the season's end.

"I'm not here to be a hero. I'm here to help the club to keep in the Premier League with the good squad that we have. I won't be a hero if West Ham stays in the Premier League - the whole team will be heroes.

"I love playing football. I like being in a team and having the ball and playing good football.

"I think I need maybe a couple of weeks to adapt myself to the Premier League. It is a really good league. It is strong and fast but I think I can adapt as quickly as possible.

"I hope to keep West Ham up. I want to score as many goals as we need."

Ba also played down speculation over reports that he has a long-standing knee injury that could limit his appearances.

The Paris-born forward was an ever-present in the Bundesliga before Christmas, scoring six goals in 17 appearances for Hoffenheim.

"Everybody is talking about a problem but I played the first half of this season really good and with no big problems. It is just about muscles and building more muscles and is no big deal. In a couple of weeks, everything should be 100 per cent.

"I really thought I would pass the medical easily because in the first half of the season I played well and with no big problems, so I was really surprised."

Ba admitted he was itching to pull on a claret and blue shirt for the first time.

The new No21 revealed that a chat with manager Avram Grant about his vision for the club and the team's playing style convinced him that a move to the Boleyn Ground was the right one to make.

"I had no second thoughts at all. As soon as I heard that West Ham had an interest me I was happy because it's a big club. I had a talk with the coach and had a really good feeling.

"This situation is not easy for West Ham but I'll give everything in the last 14 games to win as many games as possible.

"The first conversation I had with Avram, I asked him about his concept of football. When he gave me his answer I was like 'OK, that's good'.

"I spoke to him first late in January - I don't remember the exact date. The manager gave me a lot of messages and he wanted me to sign.

"To be honest, when you watch West Ham games, most of the time they are in the lead at half-time or in the first half. They always score. Now we have to be focused more to keep the result, because if we concede less goals then we're going to score some.

"We have to be positive otherwise we will be dying. The coach was the first one who was positive and I'm sure that's what is going to help us quickly is that we have another league game on Wednesday and this is the most important thing."