Voices on the game... West Ham

Back from the international break with a new Head Coach at the helm in Jose Mourinho, we travel to West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday (kick-off 12.30pm). As always here on tottenhamhotspur.com, we’ve rounded up some of the key opinions ahead of our clash with the Hammers, with a selection of voices from inside both clubs involved and the wider footballing world.

Rafael van der Vaart

Spurs legend, worked under Jose Mourinho briefly in 2010

“I did a pre-season with Jose (at Real Madrid). I like honest people and he was really honest with me. He said, ‘Rafa, you are too good to be on the bench so if you want, you can leave.’

“Afterwards I left to go to Spurs, so it was a good thing! He’s a great manager. If you want to win trophies, there is no better coach than he is. It’s about winning games. If you talk to all the players who’ve played under Mourinho, they love him because he’s honest.

“As a player, you live today. A new coach comes and you run more, you work harder because you want to be in the team. I’m 100 per cent sure that at the weekend, we’re going to win!”

Jose Mourinho

Spurs Head Coach

“West Ham has always a great atmosphere. Even with the change of the stadium, the passion of the fans, the participation in the game is always there. They have very good players, a very good manager. A team like us can do better and should be in a better position in the table.

“I think they have the same motivations we have. We and West Ham, we don’t belong to that part of the table and both teams want to get out of that and to try to look for other targets.”

Lucas Moura

Spurs attacker

“It’ll be a very difficult game. We know it’s so hard to play at West Ham.

“We are in a difficult situation in the Premier League and we need to win and to find the winning way as soon as possible. This game presents us with a good opportunity to do that.”

Manuel Pellegrini

West Ham manager

“I think that Tottenham have a very good team with important players that make the difference. You cannot know what is happening if you are outside of Tottenham, but the results aren’t what Tottenham have been used to having.

“Now they have another experienced manager in Jose Mourinho, who is always a manager who gives important things to his teams. Everyone has his options to play football in the way they want.

“I think that this international break was good for us, maybe. We had time to talk about things with the players, so I hope that on Saturday, and especially in a derby game – we know that for our fans, it is the most important game of the season – we see the West Ham we saw at the beginning of the season.”