West Ham United's new signing Havard Nordtveit relished the opportunity to meet up with his new team-mates for the first time and cannot wait for the new season to get underway.
Nordtveit became the first major signing of the summer when he arrived from Borussia Monchengladbach and arrives with a big pedigree having been rated one of the best midfielders in the Bundesliga.
The Norway international joined his team-mates for the first training session of the pre-season on Friday and will be jetting out on Saturday for the Stateside tour to Seattle and North Carolina.
Nordtveit knows this is an exciting time to be part of the West Ham squad and having seen the new Stadium, he cannot wait to make his Premier League debut in front of 60,000 fans when the first game is played there.
Nordtveit said: “I was a bit nervous at the start but so far this looks like a really good group.
“It is good for the players to get some holiday, but after two to three weeks you start feeling that you are missing it and it is good for me to come to a new club and I am really looking forward to playing for West Ham.
“Hopefully I will get to know the players more when we travel to America.
“These are exciting times for the Club and I drove past the new Stadium which looks fantastic. I cannot wait to play there.
“I am here to play as much as I can. There is a big battle for places all over the pitch. I will do my best and we will see when the season starts.
“The Champions League and Europa League are great competitions and if we prepare well we have a great chance of playing in the Europa League group stages and that is fantastic for the fans and the players to play in.”
Nordtveit says he has been keeping a close eye on the Hammers players in action at the Euro Finals in France and hopes they can continue to reach the latter stages of the competition.
But the 26-year-old also has an added interest in another country participating as his wife is Icelandic and is still celebrating a famous victory over England.
Nordtveit added: “I have been watching the Euros and what the players have done out there is amazing.
“I am also a small fan of another country as my wife comes from Iceland so we have supported them because they are a small country and what they have done against a big team like England is a dream.
“She has still got a big smile after what happened the other night!”