Before the first leg, you said it was a great chance to gain momentum and confidence. Is that the case even more so now?
"I think we’ve got to do everything we possibly can to qualify, which we will do and get through. I think when you’ve got play-off games, they are always difficult. I don’t think there are any easy play-off games now, whether it was a play-off to qualify for the Champions League or whether it’s an easy game in the Europa League.
"No difference in this competition as well. Everybody wants to get through, everyone wants to be in the group stages and that’s what we want to do."
Will the side be boosted by your return to the touchline?
"I hope that helps, yes."
Have you had time to reflect on the start of the season? How are the new signings bedding in?
"I think we can’t go away from saying we’ve only just started the season, we know that. Not as well as we would have liked but we actually think that when we were looking back over the last season and with what we’ve done last year, the games we’ve played and got to the semi-final and the games we had, it’s been a tough year for us.
"A wee bit slow in starting, slower than we would’ve liked but I feel as if we’re working towards it and I’ve seen signs of it and improving it. We’re talking plenty about it, it’s not as if we’re burying our heads in the sand and not thinking about it. We are trying to do something about it."
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Do you think the standards have slipped at all since Mark Noble left?
"Not at all. If you think of where the standards were here three years ago compared to where the standards are now, it’ll tell you where we’ve come.
"Sometimes, to make that big jump, which we have done, the difference now is difficult to sometimes see. I’ve told the story a couple of times about the 10 or 11 years I had at Everton, quite often it was a good year or a bad year, good year or bad year. I didn’t want that to happen at West Ham and thankfully, last season it didn’t.
"We’ve had two really good seasons, but it’s always possible that it can happen. We need to be aware of it and we’re also in the middle of changing an awful lot in the squad and it is needed change and needed to try to look to fix it. That could be a little bit to do with the position we are in at the moment. I think going forward, it’s the right way to grow, I really do."
How pleased are you with signing Emerson and what will he bring?
"For me, we’ve been looking for help for Cressy [Aaron Cresswell] for a while. I thought it was right that Arthur [Masuaku] to go out, we hadn’t used him as much and get [someone] who would fill in at left-back or left wing-back. We wanted to try to see what else we could find. It has been really, really difficult to find that position in the clubs we wanted to try to find players in that role.
"Emerson was always really high on my list, we were looking at others as well in the build-up over the last two months. We’ve bid for a couple, we didn’t get them. Emerson, in the end, we were able to get over the line, he can give us left-back, give us left wing-back, which we didn’t have as well, so I’m hoping that he shows what he can do."
Will he travel to Viborg?
"He can’t. You’re not allowed to register players for the first leg and then change them, so that’s the reason why he can’t."
You’ve been linked with a lot of players. Is it hard to make those decisions to move players on in order to make the club ambitious?
"I think we are and I think people would’ve seen it. The people who would’ve watched us regularly I think would probably agree with me. I think probably since last January, will have maybe seen signs that we need to make changes.
"But as you well know, if you’re in the game and you’re in the game long enough, making changes can sometimes be the difficult bit and trying to get that to form again. I think the thing that we’ve got is that we’ve made great strides, we’ve got a great club now I feel behind the scenes now.
"The difference, the changes in the club, the mentality, the change in how we’re perceived. How we are perceived, let’s be fair, people see us as a top team now, which is a big change. I just feel this is a little bit of a turnaround, not through the fault of anybody. It’s been a difficult market.
"You can see the prices in the market and what’s going on now. You can probably understand a bit more now how difficult the market has been, but I think it’s the right thing and I think most people who watch West Ham close enough will say ‘yep, probably so. We’re just seeing signs of maybe needing to change two or three players from January last year.’
"But I think all of the players who have been here, I’ve said to them, a couple of times. ‘When it’s all over and I’m finished and they are either managers or they are coaches or doing something else, they can bring me to their club for a beer or we’ll go for a beer somewhere.’
"We worked together just now, but they’ve been great colleagues and great players. All of the players who have been here have been fantastic and hopefully, in the future, I see them as coaches and managers.
Do you believe that you do have a group of leaders?
"Mark was the leader but Declan was the leader on the pitch with his performances and taking the team forward. Dec's great at that.
"The bit that we are missing is that we have a wee bit of a void at the moment with players coming in, trying to integrate them and keep all the other ones still in a good place as well. It's a big job to ask.
"Dec has got a long way to go to be seen as a real leader. Phil Neville was a brilliant captain for me at Everton and Mark Noble has been brilliant for me at West Ham. You get people who can really help you.
Different pressure as a top-end club now
"The difference when you are at Manchester United is that your job is to win all the games. Then you have to win with a bit of style and score goals. Here at West Ham we have not had that but the difference now is yes, we are expected to win, win with a bit of style and people are used to seeing us score a lot of goals.
"I couldn't put us in the same category as Manchester United but it comes with being a side that has high expectations. And the one thing I do want as a manager is expectations because that means we have done well enough to gain them. Sometimes you can't always reach them but I'm telling the players we are still reaching for the stars, we are still going to challenge and we will be there at the end of the season."
Is there a consequence of being a big club?
Yeah, I'll tell you another part of it as well. Being a top-six club you need to attract top-six players if you want to be a top-six club. Of course, you'll have the journey I told you a bit about, how you can go and get on a journey, we have done brilliantly in the last two and a half years.
"But then you need to say that 'we're up there now, how are we going to stay up there? How are we going to keep in and amongst it?' Well keeping in and amongst it means us buying and paying. I've got to say some of the clubs have bought really well.
"It's also been really expensive and I've got to say, our owners have been brilliant on what they've tried to get us to spend. We bought Gianluca [Scamacca], Italian forward, we've brought a centre-half who we really like, unfortunately, he's got injured.
"So I feel at the moment, they've supported us all the way trying to get us the players and they still are just now.
"There have been some players we have not been able to get because they are not seeing West Ham quite yet as that real biggie. And that's been where we've been saying 'my goodness we need that one to make us a top-six team.
"And that's where the difficulty we have found this window, trying to get that group of players who we could maybe step up. We are still in this 'are we, aren't we?
Bid for Lucas Paqueta?
"I'll not talk about him but I can tell you that we have bid for him. Twenty-three, 30 Brazil caps, can play 10, eight, plays as a false nine for Brazil quite often. I think his pedigree is really good. Your pedigree doesn't always guarantee that it works but you hope that it helps towards possibly getting better."
Does it tick you off when people say the Europa Conference League is a distraction?
"Yeah it does. And I think what I'm saying, I don't and I'm not saying for a minute that you boys do, but to play Thursday-Sunday is always been a nightmare. Whether I'm saying we all want to be in Europe because for West Ham especially, we need it.
"If you look what happened last year, to the club, the profile, how people saw our club, how people saw our team, how they saw our players, the media, you boys all coming, they've probably not had that here at West Ham for I don't know how long but the thing about what I'm finding out now is you still can't get away with, I've not really enjoyed how we've played since the back end of, no since January.
"But nearly every one of them, you have to think about the games away from home coming back. We were away in Seville with Brentford the next week. I think we came back from Lyon and we had Arsenal the next game.
"You know, it's really difficult to play Thursday-Sunday. So that's the problem with these competitions. It's not that you don't want to be in it, it's just that you're finding this Thursday-Sunday and it has to be taken, it is a drain on you the whole thing and at the moment we want to get through.
"But again, it will be a drain on any team and I was looking at Eintracht Frankfurt won it last year and look at Eintracht Frankfurt's league position where they finished. Look at Lyon, quarters or the semis, Seville with us as well look at those teams. We finished seventh back in Europe again so we did unbelievable to do the best we could.
"Is it taking its toll a little bit? You could say yeah, it probably has. I genuinely believe we'll be back.
Is it a risk worth taking?
"We want to be in it. We could step back out and maybe see if we grow again for a year or two. That might happen if we're not good enough. But while we're in it, we're trying to get good enough players to help us in Europe, good enough players to help us win Premier League games. The club have done a really good job in trying to make that happen.
Having you had to try to persuade players to come?
"I would never persuade people. I want people who want to come and be a part of it. I don't want to go out and persuade people. I want them to come to a stadium where the support is right behind them – where they know they're getting great backing and great support.
"That plays a big part. I had a couple of people at the game at the weekend who were very keen to come to the club and you just never know when you've got people watching. I'm trying to attract top players to the club. I need the crowd and everybody to be right behind the team all the way, even when it's quite not so good.
That wasn't quite the case against Brighton. Are you disappointed with the booing?
"That's because of the levels that we reached, no. You have to accept when you don't quite do it but if you ask most West Ham supporters how they've seen the football over the last couple of years, they'd say they've been pretty happy with what they've seen. I'm expecting to get back to our best.
You mentioned the difficulty of signing, talk us through trying to get players having missed out on Onana, Nunez.
"We tried to get someone who can complement what we got as well. We tried to sign Kalvin Phillips in January, we couldn't get that over the line in January otherwise we would have had Kalvin Phillips in January. We've been trying to add to areas. We've not been able to get everything right away. We're trying to pull it together.
"We could do with another midfield player if we lost Declan or Tom (to injuries) then I'd have a high-quality replacement. If I wanted somebody to play with them, could I get someone to play with them if I need to do so?
"I want somebody to add value to what we've got so I need someone to give us another value to what we've got in Declan. So trying to get all that, say we think of some of the ones we've got, but there's a few we've got so we've really tried to get what we think are good level of player."
There's been a bid made for Hans Vanaken, what's the latest?
I can only tell you we made a bid, and we made an improved bid for him as well.
More staff on the recruitment team, has that been easier?
I wouldn't say it's been easier this transfer window. I don't know anybody who's speaking to any other managers at the clubs. This transfer window has felt really long. That's one thing. There are some players there in the market who have really changed the market price, some clubs who haven't been able to spend, some who have spent a ridiculous amount on people who maybe we wouldn't think, it's been a very difficult market.
"I've got to say, we've found the agents really difficult and very, very expensive to get that side of the deal done. So much getting added on to things now. If the real world knew where it was going, and what was happening, it would be a shock."
Can we talk about prices in general? We are seeing, not mentioning names, but we are seeing lots of money go for players with respect to them, haven't done much in the game.
"I think it probably tells you how little there is out there to buy, certainly British players. I think it's probably easier to go abroad and maybe pick people up. But any of the British players, the prices have been really, really big for them. I think it's been harder.
"Now of course you can probably name a few where you can name free transfers, you get for a little money. But if you're talking about trying to get the best-looking newcomers, who will be at the club for the next six, or seven years, it will cost you big money, so that's been a hard thing. We're seeing some really big prices."
Are you getting value for money?
"You think there are other things you might do but I'm getting serious and I don't know if Sky are filming this but I actually think Sky have sent out an awful lot of wrong prices. I think they overpriced so many of the players, from what I'm seeing, from my practice I'm seeing that the prices they are putting out are not the exact prices."
How many players have you bid for? Have you lost count?
"Do you know something, I'd probably say yes. I might say yes to that question. I couldn't say it wouldn't take me long to gather it up but I might say yes to it.
You’ve been trying, and got some in…
"We have bid for a lot of players. If I told you ones we have you would burst out laughing and say you’re kidding yourself on."
Tell us one
"No, I'll tell you maybe off record but I wouldn't tell you on the record. Maybe we are trying to go way above our station.
"Maybe I've tried to go even higher than we already are. But we genuinely, the club, we have tried to get really top players because I knew we needed it and probably for us to give everybody a lift if a couple of really top players coming in who could ease the pressure on Declan Rice or Tomas Soucek or Michail Antonio, that sort of thing."
Main reason you haven’t got them because of not getting Champions League or Europa?
I don’t think that was the main reason. West ham on how we played last year was hugely attractive, how we played where we got to and where we challenged. We were five minutes from being in the Europa League in the game against Brighton. Let's say, I know we ended up in the Conference but we were really close to finishing sixth again but for the last 15 minutes.
"You couldn’t say we have been miles away from it. But I think you here, a few of the boys who are here regular would probably say 'yeah, I can see where we're having to start to sort of try and rebuild and move one or two things around and try things. I don’t think the things we are trying, many people would disagree.
"But what you've got to see at the moment is what you've got to report. I'm seeing it as well."
When you say about prices being misquoted, can you give an example?
"I could give you three or four from our club where I don’t think the value that has been put up is correct. I don’t think it is exact"
Conor Gallagher? Still interested
I could never talk about players at another club. Never would. I was asked the question did we make offers for people, I'm not going to tell any lies but I can't talk about players at other clubs.
Angelo Ogbonna coming back. What could he give to the team once fully back and his impact?
"Angelo has been huge for us, a huge personality, huge in the dressing room and a really important player for us. I actually believe we have brought him back a little bit sooner than we would have liked. He has needed another three or four weeks of training and games. But we needed it. He is not fully ready yet, but it was good last week for him to get back in and amongst it. We are glad to have him back for his experience and know-how of the game and also for someone who has been here seven years.
"So he's very experienced in the club."
Coufal? Touch and go?
If you know the protocols for concussion, he can’t play tomorrow. He can’t play for six days because of a concussion. He was knocked out by all accounts. He is fine, he is running around like a madman and wanting to be involved but the protocols are that he can’t play."
