West ham midfielder just wants to play football

West Ham’s new midfielder Henri Lansbury has admitted that he had no reservations about joining the Hammers on the final day of the summer transfer window – although revealed that the move did come as a bit of a surprise.

Lansbury joined West Ham on a season-long loan from Arsenal to become Sam Allardyce’s 11th summer signing, and the 20-year-old was more than keen to join the Hammers once he knew of the club’s interest.

“I’m definitely happy at joining West Ham,” said the midfielder, who scored two goals as well as setting up two for England under-21s last Friday in their 6-0 win against Azerbaijan.

“It’s a massive club and I’m happy to come here.

“It was a bit late when I found out, but as soon as West Ham came in for me it was a definite yes on my part.

“West Ham are such a big club and have such a great manager and such great players as well.

“I didn’t have any reservations. The manager here asked me to come and play.

“So I spoke to the manager at Arsenal who told me I might not get the amount of football I wanted and I just wanted to go and play.

“West Ham have given me the chance to come and do just that.”

Lansbury spent the majority of last season on loan at Norwich City, helping to guide the Canaries to promotion from the Championship to the Premier League and the England under-21 international is hoping that he can do the same in east London in this campaign.

“It’s a tough league,” he said.

“You have to be ready to go and play week in, week out.

“We’ve got the players to hopefully go and do that, just like Norwich had last year.”

In total, Lansbury made 23 appearances for the Norfolk side, scoring four goals before returning to his parent club at the end of last season.

This campaign, the midfielder featured in two Premier League games for Arsenal, with both performances coming from the bench in the 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool and the 8-2 thrashing at Manchester United, before making the move to east London.

Lansbury’s name was once again on the scoresheet for England’s under-21s as he wrapped up a 4-1 win against Israel on Monday night, and the youngster is looking forward to playing alongside Hammers captain Kevin Nolan in the middle of the park.

“Kevin’s a very experienced player and I look forward to playing with him,” said Lansbury.

“We’ve played against each other a few times and even had our arguments, but I look forward to playing with him and getting West Ham up the league.”

Lansbury has initially signed a season-long loan with the Hammers, but is refusing to rule out making the move permanent.

“We’ll have to see how it goes,” said Lansbury, who is still tipped for a big future at the Emirates.

However, this season, the midfielder is fully focussed on the task in hand for West Ham.

“I think there’s pressure on every player to play well every week,” he said.

“We need to play as a team and go out and do our best.

“Hopefully the fans will see my fighting spirit and I’ll show them what I’m about and get us to the top of the league.”