Gianluca Nani is delighted with his first six months at West Ham United as technical director.
"I was so pleased to join the club but after six months I am really happy. I know that West Ham is really the perfect club to try and build something fantastic. I have found a really good staff here, a really good team," Nani told whufc.com.
"I don't just mean the players but in Scott (Duxbury), Gianfranco (Zola) and everyone around Chadwell Heath and the Boleyn Ground, I have found something really good. We are really happy to work together and all of us is thinking the same way. We have a football project and we all talk every day to make it happen.
"The idea is that a club like West Ham has to have its own structure, able to sustain a system that allows it to find in advance the best players all over the world. We want to try to build something that could be important to the history of West Ham. I have read a lot of the history of the club, the way that the club has always tried to play, and all the great players that have played here. Now we have to try to build a system to discover in advance the best players, wherever they are in the world."
The relationship with Duxbury and Zola is key and Nani comes to life when quizzed about the way the trio work within the CEO's football project.
"It was Scott's vision for the club that impressed me," he said. "He wants to have the best technical and medical department in Europe and we are heading in the right direction. I speak regularly with Gianfranco. He is so clever. He has always been the best at everything he does and he is a pleasure to spend time with.
"We have a close working relationship and we always talk about football. It is our job. It is a good relationship and it is a part of the job, it is professional but it is also pleasure. The CEO, technical director and the manager have to be close.
"Always we see things the same way. If we have £40m for one player, we would prefer to find four or five important players than just one, and have some money for the training ground. I feel so much responsibility for West Ham and not for Gianluca Nani. The club has to be happy with what we have done after ten years.
"We are looking for players that will come in and understand the West Ham direction. We are doing longer contracts for our younger players and we are trying to work with a long-term view. We are happy with the players we have and it is not surprising that other teams want our players when they are doing so well.
"Already, maybe [John] Pantsil has gone but in came Behrami. [George] McCartney left but Ilunga arrived. [Anton] Ferdinand was sold but we had James Collins, James Tomkins and still Danny Gabbidon to come back."
