Graham Potter is relishing the return of Premier League football as West Ham United prepare to play their first competitive fixture in 17 days at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday evening.
With the March international window being followed by Emirates FA Cup sixth-round weekend, the Irons have not contested a top-flight game since drawing at Everton on Saturday 15 March.
In the meantime, seven senior players have been away with their respective national teams, with captain Jarrod Bowen appearing twice in FIFA World Cup qualifiers for England, and Evan Ferguson scoring a vital UEFA Nations League play-off goal for Republic of Ireland.
Both forwards returned to Rush Green training ground in positive mood ahead of the trip to Molineux, where the Hammers will be seeking to complete a Premier League double over an improving Wolves team who have collected ten points from their last six matches under Portuguese Head Coach Vítor Pereira.
I’m looking forward to going again
I feel good. I’m looking forward to going again though, to be honest. It is what it is, as there’s nothing you can do about the schedule.
You’ve just got to hope that the guys have had a good, positive international camp, the ones that were away, and then we worked with the players that were here, which we’ve done.
So yeah, we’re looking forward to the game.
We want Jarrod to finish the season strongly
I’m delighted for Jarrod Bowen winning two more England caps.
It’s always good for our players to represent their countries and Jarrad’s no different. I think it helps them, it helps going away, it helps with a different experience and different environment.
And then to come back and he’s come back in a good way, in a good place so again, we’re looking forward to seeing him for the next two months or so just really push on and finish the season off strongly.
We’ve been competitive away from home
I’ve said it before, in some ways it doesn’t matter where you get the points, if you get the points but at the same time you want to build that connection with your fans at home. You need that home record.
We’ve been competitive away as well, which I think is also important for us. So it’s a work in progress really to do both things well. We have an away game [on Tuesday evening] and we have to be competitive.
We’ve gone to Arsenal and Chelsea and Aston Villa and been competitive and taken some points. I think Wolves will be another tough game because they’re a talented team. A new coach has come in and they’ve had some really good results.
So in any Premier League match, home or away, there’s always a challenge, there’s always something to it, and we have to be ready for that.
Wolves are clear in what they are doing
Wolves have always had a talented group, a talented squad. The previous manager, Gary [O’Neil], probably was a little bit unlucky in terms of how the season started for them and then you get behind the mark a little bit.
But credit to the new manager [Vítor Pereira], as he’s come in, he’s stabilised the team, got results and good performances, and it’s clear what they’re doing in terms of how they attack, how they defend.
They utilise the talent that they have well, so it’s going to be a tough game.
Mo Kudus has been great with us
I think Mo has had probably a season that, from his perspective, would be a little bit disappointing, not because of his lack of effort or anything like that, but sometimes these things happen.
Speaking personally, he’s been great with us in terms of how he’s worked every day, fantastic. He has built his fitness up, built his condition up to the point where he can sustain things a lot better now.
Football can go like that sometimes. You can have a little spell when it doesn’t quite happen for you in front of goal or your final pass just doesn’t quite get there. It doesn’t take much to turn that round.
How he contributed, for example, against Arsenal in our win there, even though he didn’t score or assist, he was a top, top player in that game and massively helped us. So the numbers say something, but there’s also the [other] aspects of his performance that have been really, really good.
It was good for Evan Ferguson to score for Ireland
For forwards, it’s nice for them to score and it was nice for Evan to score for Ireland during the international window.
He’s been doing a lot well and we know the sort of place that he was when he came [from Brighton] and where he was from an injury perspective and coming back from injury and his game time. So it was always going to be a little bit of a patience one with him.
Going away and again, being in a different environment, with a different team, just to get some minutes, just to play, to score, it’s great for a forward.
He’s been good in training and he’s come back in a good place. He’s always been ready to help the team. He’s settled in well with the group here, he trains hard every day and he’s ready to play.
Freddie Potts deserves his new contract
Freddie has had a couple of really good loans, successful loans, which I think is important for a player, at Wycombe and now at Portsmouth.
It’s really important to have that accumulation of games, those minutes.
We do a great job in terms of the Academy and development and have good programme internally, but sometimes you need to go out and play as well and he’s done that and he’s had the benefit of that.
So we’re looking forward to him finishing the season off strong and then coming back and being part of our group in pre-season.
