West Ham striker Javier Hernandez wants to fire the club into Europe - to repay manager Manuel Pellegrini.

Valencia tried to sign striker Hernandez in the January window, but their bid was refused on manager Pellegrini's orders even though the £16million striker had managed just 14 goals in 55 appearances for the Hammers.

“I want to thank the boss and all his staff because I'm trying to be in my best shape," he said. "I hadn't scored that much but they have given me their trust and the most important thing is that the team is getting the results.

“That's the great thing about internal competition, we're all fighting for a starting spot, we all want to play as much as possible.

“I want to thank the coach by playing well, which is the best possible way. Now we're going to think about trying to get into the European places. This club is in a transition in which it wants to qualify every year for Europe, that's the idea and that's why they hired this coaching staff and a lot of players.

“We're playing in this stadium that can fit 60,000 fans, so that's the idea in the short, medium and long term. We want to start doing it this year and help the club get used to be always fighting to finish in a top seven spot."