West Ham fan Ollie Hirst hails the arrival of Angelo Ogbonna
New manager, new look squad, new European adventure. You can't help but feel excited for the coming season at West Ham United, can you?
After earning a place in the Europa League last season, the West Ham hierarchy wasted little time in bringing in former favourite Slaven Bilic to be our new coach and a number of new faces followed. Mind you, our latest arrivals are not your typical, run-of-the-mill summer transfers.
They have been top quality acquisitions. Players who will take this club up a level and get us pushing for regular qualification into European competition. The latest man to arrive is Angelo Ogbonna, who joined last week for an undisclosed eight-figure fee from Italian champions Juventus.
At 27, the defender will play out his peak years at our club and join us as we step into a new home at the start of next season. This signing is yet more proof after confirmation of our move to the new Stadium that this is a club going places. No pun intended.
There's a serious appetite at West Ham to take steps forward. Ogbonna's acquisition is an important one - we needed to add a centre half to the rank, and the former Torino man's skill-set suits the Premier League down to a tee. He'll predominantly be a centre half, but Ogbonna is able to fill in at left back when needed too.
He's a strong, quick and agile defender, and while his time with the Turin giants didn't quite go to plan, he's proven that he's good enough to play at the highest level. Players don't get to be a part of back-to-back Scudetto-winning teams without reason. Ogbonna even helped Juve scoop the Coppa Italia at the back end of last season and was a part of the squad that travelled to Berlin to partake in the Champions League final.
Ogbonna said upon arrival that he's dreamt of playing in the Premier League over the past few years and he's finally got that wish. He's a big coup for our club and his signing is made even sweeter by the fact that we've beaten a number of direct rivals to the player's signing.
Everton were reportedly interested in the player along the way, while Southampton came in with a late offer, but were ultimately turned down. Given that we're teams competing to earn similar goals over the course of the next season, Ogbonna's signing gives us a real shot in the arm. We've even beaten Italian giants Napoli to his signature.
Things are looking up for West Ham United. The latest arrival is proof that we're not happy with standing still and that we want to improve enough to compete on all fronts. It's been a promising summer so far, and trust that any further incomings will be worthy of the claret and blue too.
For more West Ham fan views or to join the conversation visit www.90min.com
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United