Vladimir Coufal sets PL position target for West Ham as Irons eye European football
Vladimir Coufal has detailed the desire at West Ham to achieve a top-six Premier League position that will see European football return to East London.
Heading into Monday’s clash with Sheffield United the Irons are in sixth place and can go fourth if Chelsea lose to Newcastle United.
That will mean overtaking last season’s champions Liverpool and it will edge the club ever closer to securing European football at the London Stadium.
In quotes taken from the official West Ham programme v Sheffield United, Coufal said: “When we finish the season, if we are still in sixth position, I’ll meet all my teammates and we’ll go out for a good party.
“It will be crazy and unbelievable if we finished the season in sixth place, but everybody at the club is doing everything for it.”
With 15 games left time is ticking for sides like Liverpool to regain confidence and form while a resurgent West Ham look primed to take advantage of any teams that fall by the wayside.
Go for gold
It has now reached the stage where anything other than a top-six finish will be a disappointment.
That would have been quite the statement at the start of the season but it is now more than a realistic possibility such has been the performances of this West Ham side coupled with some of the big clubs entering freefall.
Liverpool and Spurs have taken just nine points combined from their last five games while Chelsea sacked former Hammer Frank Lampard as manager earlier in the season.
Arsenal are also enduring mid-table mediocrity so the waves have parted for the Irons to take advantage and assert themselves as credible European challengers.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could make a run for the Champions League places as a win v Sheffield United would put us just four points behind Manchester United in second.
Perhaps that will be a step too far for this squad that is still in its early stages of development but how uplifting it is to hear Coufal and co reveal their lofty ambitions for the season.
This could be a historic campaign for the Irons and at West Ham Zone we are predicting good times ahead.
In other West Ham news, see our view on the progression of Pablo Fornals in Claret and Blue.