HAMMERS WON’T ALL BE HAPPY!

Pellegrini: I’ll be ruthless when selecting my West Ham team

WEST HAM boss Manuel P elle gri ni feels one of his biggest tests will be keeping his bloated squad happy.

The Hammers brought in 10 players this summer, including Felipe Anderson for a club record £40million.

Pellegrini, who takes his team to Liverpool tomorrow, now believes he will need to make tough decisions and it will be hard not to upset players.

‘Maybe it is one of the most difficult things because all of them want to play,’ Pellegrini said yesterday. ‘If there is a better player, then there are more problems.

‘It is more difficult when you don’t have players, when you just have 11, when you don’t have any problems, when you just choose exactly the same XI every week.

‘But that is impossible for the amount of games, for the injuries. As a manager it is easier to have more good players, and some must wait.’

Pellegrini acknowledged there is pressure on him and his team to perform from the start after spending over £100million.

The Chilean insisted that cochairman David Sullivan has not set him a target of qualifying for Europe but that he wants to play attacking, attractive football.

‘no, we did not talk about that (Europe),’ Pellegrini said. ‘Just the general direction of the club. We will try to play the best way and get near the top of the table as we can.

‘normally, when you bring in so many players you need a period of adjustment, but football does not allow you to have that period.

‘We need to be a competitive team on Sunday and, after that, next week. As a manager the difficult thing is when you don’t have options. That’s difficult.

‘Players know I have to choose one starting XI, but also they know that if during the whole season you don’t have a strong squad, d it can b be very diffi difficult lt to be successful.

‘So we have two players in each position, they must be working in a competitive way and after that it is my duty to choose for every game the starting XI that I think is best.’