West Ham United centre back Winston Reid can see a bright year ahead, hailing the impact of the Club's new coaching staff, fresh signings and emerging young talent as he played his first pre-season match of the year in Saturday's 3-3 draw away to Peterborough.
The New Zealand international played the first hour at London Road and said it was good to get some playing time into his legs:
"It's always nice to get your first game back in pre-season. It was nice to get back out there, and play a little bit. There were some good performances today, but the main thing is to get fitter."
As well as describing new signing Pedro Obiang as a really good addition to the squad, Reid singled out performances from West Ham's emerging stars, such as Martin Samuelson and Alex Pike:
"They were really, really good, and that's the important thing about pre-season - giving the youngsters an opportinity. We've all been there as youngsters, coming out in pre-season with an opportunity to prove yourself, and this is a really good time for them to do so."
Reid also commented on the rapid impact that Slaven Bilic, Julian Dicks and other new members of the coaching staff have had on the team:
"We've had a new manager come in. I'm sure he will want us to play in a different way and he has his own ideas, and the players are looking forward to learning from him. We get to play on the training pitch and see what he wants us to do, and it's been good.
"He's very passionate. You can see from the way he is on the sidelines: he wants us to win, he wants us to do our very best, he wants us to go out and for us to enjoy ourselves, but the most important thing at the end of the day is winning games.
"Julian Dicks has also been a great new addition, and the rest of the coaching staff are really, really great guys. They push us really hard, and certainly the boys are enjoying it, and we're learning from them."
With the new management team in place, top international players arriving, and exciting young talent emerging, Reid says he is glad he recently signed a new long-term contract with the Hammers:
"I'm really, really happy to be here, and hopefully we'll have a really good season this year, and carry ourselves well into the new stadium. But the most important thing is this next season, and we'll just take things game by game.
"We need to improve on what we did last year. We had a fantastic first half of the season but the second half was not the best. So we need to improve and make sure the first half of the season also continues into the second."
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Reid aims for strong season
13th July 2015
Centre-back hails the impact of the new coaching team, signings and talented youngster