New West Ham captain Hayden Mullins maintains that, despite off-field distractions of reported financial problems and player unrest, the future is looking good for the Hammers. "The manager has come in and freshened a lot of things up, training is brilliant," said Mullins.

"We have got a new shape we are working on, and a lot of it is coming off.

"In the last couple of weeks people have seen the Portsmouth result and the Stoke result and then the win over Barnsley. It is something we are building on."

Mullins told the club's official website: "It was not quite going for us a couple of weeks ago. But now it is turning round, and everything is looking upwards.

"We are going higher up in the league and are trying to win as many games as we can - and that is a tribute to the manager."