Sunday 14 August 2016 23:20, UK
Slaven Bilic believes West Ham have joined the Premier League elite when it comes to signing top players.
The Hammers begin their Premier League campaign on Monday away to Chelsea - a match you can see live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7pm - and they are likely to come up against Michy Batshuayi, a striker they were keen to recruit over the summer.
He ended up signing for the Blues, with West Ham instead breaking their transfer record to buy Andre Ayew from Swansea for £20.5m.
And Bilic feels they are now competing with clubs such as Chelsea to sign their transfer targets if they make an early bid because of the prospect of Europa League football and their new London Stadium.
"I said it openly, we tried to get at the beginning one of the top strikers of the moment and they opted for a bigger club and also better money of course, but at the end we bought what we wanted to. I'm happy," the Croatian coach said.
"I said a few weeks ago to the chairman and (chief scout) Tony Henry that if we want to go big game fishing, there are two conditions for us to compete with the big clubs - if we go early or if we put more money in.
"Then we might have had a chance, on paper, with those great ones.
"But we didn't do that. Then it is almost impossible to get the player."
Belgian forward Batshuayi comes to England following a prolific season with Marseille last year, while Ayew has also been backed by Bilic as a "game changer".
But the Hammers boss feels he already had a 20-goal-a-season striker in Andy Carroll, with the England forward looking to put his injury issues behind him.
"It's a massive one. But we said the same last year," Bilic added.
"He has done the whole of pre-season. OK, we rested him for a couple of games but that was when he needed a rest, it was nothing down to injury.
"When we wanted to sign the kind of striker who is going to score 20 goals per season, last year statistically his goal rate and assist rate and impact rate is 20 goals a season - minimum.
"But the problem was that because of the number of games he was available it was not 20 goals, it was nine. We hope this season he is going to be injury-free."
