Pellegrini lifts West Ham gloom after Sullivan hands him the reins

SUCH is the intoxicating air of optimism at West Ham United that it is hard to believe only four months have passed since that now-infamous meeting with Burnley, when fans revolted, players collapsed and owners were forced to flee from their seats.

That 3-0 defeat at the London Stadium, and the violence that came with it, felt like the moment of release after two seasons of simmering tensions.

Something had to give and, in response, the club’s owners have clearly decided that something had to change.

“He told me he wants to build a new club,” said Manuel Pellegrini, the man hired to bring about that change, of co-owner David Sullivan, who was struck in the face by a coin during the March uprising.

“He wants to give all the responsibility of the club to me.”

A return to the Premier League, coupled with the promise of cash to spend, proved too tempting an offer for Pellegrini (right) to resist, no matter how lonely the huge dugouts at the London Stadium may have seemed for Slaven Bilic and David Moyes over the past two seasons. Sullivan’s decision to hand over the reins – and the chequebook – represented the first significant step of the summer. It was the most convincing sales pitch he could have given Pellegrini, a former Manchester City and Real Madrid manager who would have been forgiven for wondering whether joining West Ham was worth the hassle.

“It was very important for me to know where I am coming, to which owner I will find,” Pellegrini said at his official unveiling yesterday. “I know what happened with the Burnley game, but fortunately for me I have never been afraid of anything in my life.”

The second significant step was for West Ham to appoint Mario Husillos as a director of football. Husillos had worked with Pellegrini at Malaga, and the pair soon got to work in what has become the most sensational transfer window of West Ham’s history.

So far, seven new players have arrived, for a combined cost of almost £100 million. There is a new goalkeeper in Lukasz Fabianski (£7 million from Swansea City) and new

defenders in Ryan Fredericks (free from Fulham), Fabian Balbuena (£3.5 million from Corinthians) and Issa Diop (£22 million from Toulouse). Jack Wilshere has arrived from Arsenal, while Andriy Yarmolenko (£17.5 million from Borussia Dortmund) and Felipe Anderson (£35 million from Lazio) will provide attacking firepower.

“All the signings at this moment are what I require,” said Pellegrini, who added that more recruits could be on the way.

“Not any influence of the club. If there is a player the club wants, and I also like, there is not a problem but I am in charge of that.”

It has been a remarkable transfer window both in its scale and its efficiency. By way of comparison, last year’s summer window ended with the director of Sporting Lisbon labelling Sullivan and David Gold as the “dildo brothers” following their failed pursuit of William Carvalho.

The new recruits, Pellegrini hopes, will facilitate a return to the “West Ham way”.

“I think one of the most important things for any club, not just West Ham, is to have a style of football,” he said.

“West Ham has a tradition and David Sullivan thought I was that way and was very happy to trust me. I always try to play offensive football.”

The focus on Pellegrini’s past has naturally centred on his time at City, where he won the Premier League title and two League Cups. It may be more instructive, however, to look back to his successful years at two smaller clubs, Villarreal and Malaga.

“I chose Malaga as it was fighting against relegation and we built a project. I hope we can do it here,” he said. “If you are working at another club you must build a project to try to improve what the club had done in years before, and that is my challenge here.”

A sense of purpose is what West Ham fans have been craving since the move to the London Stadium.

There is a feeling that the owners’ promises of a glorious future have not been kept, so there is inevitably some excitement over this summer’s influx of stars. (© Daily Telegraph, London)