West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has claimed that it his ambition for the club to break into the top six.
The Hammers currently lie 12th in the table after a disappointing run of recent form, but the Chilean insists that he believes he can turn his side into one of the strongest in the country.
Speaking to the club’s official website, he said: “If Leicester had said in 2015 that ‘we are going to win the league’ then they’d have been crazy, but they did it.
“So, you can make that jump in quality. That’s why I’m here. It’s not about compromising and saying ‘well, they’re the six big teams and we have to stay down here beneath them’.
“If you’re not signing a single player then OK but if there is investment and that investment goes with having a proper idea about how you want to play, then why can’t you make that jump in quality?”
OPINION
Pellegrini certainly talks the talk, and the Chilean has proven before that he is good enough to walk the walk. After a wildly successful career, he has pitched up at the London Stadium, and while results have been poor recently, appears to be slowly getting results. There is no reason why West Ham couldn’t follow in the footsteps of Tottenham, for instance, and really make a play for the upper echelons of the Premier League. They have the stadium, the fanbase, the manager, and increasingly, the financial backing to attract the players necessary for a top six finish, and while it isn’t going to happen this year, if Pellegrini is shown enough support, it is an attainable target for the relatively near future. There are still a lot of creases that need to be ironed out, and the sooner the club starts to show some consistency the better, but everything is there.