Chadwell Chatter

Diafra Sakho reflects on his first season with West Ham United and sets his sights on an ambitious target for next term
Hello everyone,

It is the close-season now, but we will be back at Chadwell Heath soon to prepare for the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds, which is very exciting for the Club.

I liked my first season with West Ham United and my best moment was the game with Manchester City, while my worst moment was the home match with Chelsea, when we lost one-zero.

The Manchester City goal was a very important goal for me and for the fans. They like a good ambience and it was a good game, a very big game and to win 2-1 was very important for the players and for the fans.

It was fantastic for me to have a moment like scoring that winning goal in my first season and I thank God for it and hopefully I will score more goals next season.

Against Chelsea, Thibaut Courtois was fantastic and stopped everything I could throw at him. It was very bad for me and after the game, I couldn’t sleep. In my mind, it was very important to win that Chelsea game, but that’s life and will try to beat them next season.

Every year I try to improve on what I did the season before. Before this season, I said to myself I would score 12 goals and I scored 12, so next season I want to score 20. If I play games, I will score.

The hardest defender I played against was the Southampton defender Jose Fonte, who was a very strong defender in a very good team. He and the other centre-back Toby Alderweireld are both very good defenders.

For me, the funniest moment of the season that has just finished, my first season in England, was getting to meet and know my friend Chiekhou Kouyate. He is a very nice guy and is smiling all the time.

It is my first season here and Cheik helped me to settle into life in England and I like that. It’s a simpler life for me because Cheik is here. I talk to Cheik if I need to.

My injury has gone now and I started training before the end of the season and I will be ready for next season.

This summer I will see my daughter in France and my family in Senegal. I will be training every day, though, because I see next season as being very hard.

I only played 25-26 games last season because of my injuries and I want to play at least 34-35 next season. That would be very nice for me.

See you all soon,

Diafra