Joint-Chairman David Gold has spoken exclusively to West Ham TV about his hopes for a positive and successful 2012.
Mr Gold was in good spirits following the 1-0 npower Championship victory over Coventry City, happily discussing the team's return to form, the January transfer window and his use of social networking.
The Joint-Chairman also looked back on the two years since he and David Sullivan took control of the club in January 2010. The interview followed Mr Sullivan updating fans at the start of the window about the club's likely activity this month. Click here to read the story.
So, was beating Coventry City the best way to start the year?
It was desperately needed. We've hadn't won in five games and we were getting nervous and wondering 'Are we good enough, are we what we believe we are' - and that is contenders to win the division. We needed that boost to say 'Don't panic' because we've been plagued with injuries over the last few games. Against Derby we had four players out through suspension; that's not going to happen with many clubs and that certainly won't happen to us again for the rest of the season.
So although it was a struggle, and we'll read in the papers that it was just 1-0, in fact it was a bit more decisive than that. Their keeper probably had the game of his life and I'm in no doubt he was the man-of-the-match. If we had scored earlier we could have won two or three nil. As it was we ended up struggling to hang on as is always the case when you're 1-0 up, it doesn't matter who you are, you always end up struggling to keep the opposition out. But we did it and we battled. It was a bit ugly because you're looking to pass the ball and pass your way out of trouble rather than kicking your way out of trouble but that's the nature of the game.
You are working 24/7 to bring in new players. Can you talk about the list of targets and where we will be looking to strengthen this month?
I'm on Twitter for my sins and I'm bombarded with one question, which is 'who are we going to be bringing in'. I think today showed that we're a lot stronger and people are coming back.
If we can, we are looking to strengthen the squad. The minute you make an announcement that you are looking at anyone in particular it makes it much more difficult to negotiate. It is sufficient to say that David Sullivan, Sam and myself are looking to strengthen the squad, but we have to be patient.
You are prolific on Twitter. You have said that you couldn't sleep the other night so you jumped on there to talk to a few of our supporters. You must enjoy it?
It's a double-edged sword. Yes I enjoy it as I get lots of feedback but you've got to be careful that it doesn't overwhelm you. I get over 1,000 tweets a day and you can't answer them all as it's impossible. People have been very nice to me and wishing me a happy New Year and wishing West Ham well for the rest of the season. You can't answer them individually, though, but I do my best and I try to pick out the more interesting questions to answer for everyone else that has to look at them.
This month marks your second anniversary of being back at West Ham United. Has it gone quickly?
We've had some ups and downs. The worst experience in footballing terms is to get relegated and I've taken that very personally. Now it's about bouncing back and how well we bounce back. We're all in this together and there's no way that we can do it on our own and there's no way that the players can do it on their own or the manager can do it on his own or the fans of this great football club can.
The important thing is that we stick together during the difficult times. The players talk about how they feel about the support they get from the fans, about being together and wanting and willing them to win and being supportive.
There have been a couple of stories about players going out in January. Do you need to sell players or are there prospects that some players might go out?
You could put the questions the other way around. Can we afford to bring in new players? All new acquisitions will have to be paid for by David Sullivan and myself. It's not our intention to burden the football club with any further debt. It's important that we reduce debt and not increase it or at least hold it to its current level.
Do players have to go? It's not a question of 'do they have to go'; we don't want them to go. We want to keep our best players, we've got a very tough four months to go and we've got through the first half of the season and we're in good shape as we're equal top as we speak. There was a massive closing of the gap on Monday and I know that we felt that we might struggle to beat Coventry but if their keeper hadn't had the best game of his life we'd have probably won the game two or three nil. We don't want to lose any of our best players.
It's very difficult for a Chairman of a football club to say 'That's definitely not going to happen'. No supporter wants to lose any of their good players and we want to keep our best players as our focus is 100 per cent on promotion and you don't gain promotion if you start selling your best players.