Carlton Cole says West Ham United's new signings have lifted the intensity at training.

Antonio Nocerino, Marco Borriello and Pablo Armero have arrived from Italy in the past week.

"Their English is not quite up to scratch but their English is better than my Italian so I can't complain about that! We've got a few other young signings as well who are going to be looking to push for first team places, coming off the bench or starting. We've got competition for places all round now," Cole told whufc.com.

"When you've got competition for places you want to go out there and keep your place if you're starting. That's what football's about and that's what will get us the results that we need."