New West Ham signing Nayef Aguerd has outlined his intentions to help steer our Hammers to success this season and beyond.

The Moroccan international, who signed for a combined fee of around £30m from Rennes this week, is David Moyes first big summer signing in what is expected to be a busy transfer window in East London.

Aguerd was a prime target for Moyes, and the defender has told the clubs Official Website that he is hoping to have an impact on West Ham’s rise to compete with the elite domestically and on the European stage.

“I love to challenge myself,” said the new signing. “I hate to lose in training. I am so competitive. I love the competition. In every game, I want to give everything.

“West Ham this year will play in the Europa Conference League. For me, we need to play every game, so I will do my best to help the team and to try to stay at the top.

“Why not try for the five places in the Premier League? We’ll see. It’s going to be hard, for sure, but we’ll do everything to make everyone happy.”

The defender also admitted that he was touched by the amount of West Ham fans that messaged him directly following the news that we were in pursuit of his services, as revealed exclusively by our ITK ExWHUemployee on The West Ham Way podcast back in May.

“The fans sent me messages on social media,” admitted Aguerd. “I didn’t answer because I couldn’t, but when I saw I knew I needed to go to the Premier League. It’s a dream for every player.

“Since I was a child, my dream was to play in Europe. I know real football is played in Europe. In Morocco, we have a lot of good players but for me – it wasn’t that I wanted to change the mindset of those Moroccan players – but for me it was Europe.

“It is really hard to go to Europe and play when you’re born in Africa. For me, it was a dream, and I’m in Europe and I’m very happy.”