O'Brien: Hammers have grounds for optimism
Joey O'Brien thinks Sam Allardyce will be able to attract some of the best players in the world to West Ham now that they have been handed the keys to the Olympic Stadium.
After years of legal wrangling, the London Legacy Development Corporation finally confirmed last Friday that it had chosen West Ham to become anchor tenants of the London 2012 stadium in Stratford.
The Hammers are expected to move in to the 60,000-seater venue at the start of the 2016/17 season, and the club are determined to use the fact that they are moving to one of the most iconic stadia in Great Britain as a key selling point for any transfer targets.
Co-owner David Sullivan already appears to have upped the stakes in the market with his pursuit of Vitesse Arnhem striker Wilfried Bony, while other targets for next season have also been identified.
Bolton were able to attract the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff and Ivan Campo to the Reebok Stadium after they moved there from Burnden Park and the former Trotters defender, now a regular starter with the Hammers, thinks a higher calibre of player will also be tempted to move to West Ham once they see how good their new home is.
"I think it can only mean good things for the club when you move into a stadium like that," O'Brien said.
"You can attract players and supporters from all over the world to play and watch there.
"If the club want to push on and to finish higher the league, then we need a bigger stadium and to fill it to get the revenue into the football club. It's a great step forward.
"It will be unbelievable. Looking at the stadium when the Olympics were on and seeing what the club want to do with it by turning it into a football stadium, it looks unbelievable."
O'Brien and his team-mates will go a long way to banishing any lingering fears of relegation for West Ham if they beat West Brom at Upton Park.
Hammers boss Allardyce thinks five more points will be enough to secure survival, and with games against Everton, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Manchester United to come before the end of the season, O'Brien knows another win in this game will relieve a lot of pressure on the club.
He said: "If we get the three points it would set us up for a nice end to the season.
"We're in a decent position but if we can get a couple of wins in our next couple of games we'd be in a really good position."
Captain Kevin Nolan and Joe Cole have overcome their respective toe and hamstring injuries, and are expected to start.
There is also an outside chance that George McCartney could make his first start in four months following his recovery from a knee injury.
Meanwhile, West Brom head coach Steve Clarke insists his side still have plenty to play for during the next two months and will not allow the season to fizzle out.
The Baggies are assured of a fourth successive season of Barclays Premier League football and have only a remote chance of securing a Europa League spot.
But Clarke is adamant his players will not rest on their laurels ahead of the Hammers clash.
Former West Ham number two Clarke said: "We are professional, we want to finish as high as we can with as many points as we can.
"The next target for us is to get more points than we did in the last two seasons which is 47.
"If we win at the weekend we will equal that, and it will give us seven games to better it.
"For anyone to question our commitment or our desire to do well for the last eight games is wrong."
Clarke confirmed striker Peter Odemwingie will be part of the squad against West Ham despite his latest round of Twitter attacks against the Baggies which are being investigated internally.
Midfielder James Morrison is West Brom's major fresh injury concern.
He suffered a hamstring injury during the goalless draw against Stoke a fortnight ago and was forced to withdraw from international duty with Scotland.
Source: PA
Source: PA