West Ham signing Kalvin Phillips admits his move has been a long time coming.
Phillips has joined the Irons on-loan to June from Manchester City.
He told the club's website: Hopefully I can follow in some of the other players' footsteps and be a successful January signing!
Jesse [Lingard] did brilliantly when he was here, and Jarrod [Bowen] and Tom [Soucek] are huge for the Club now, so they're not easy acts to follow but I'll do my best!
I'm delighted to get it over the dotted line. I was over in Abu Dhabi on a warm-weather training camp with City, and all I could think about was getting the loan sorted.
Honestly, if City hadn't come in for me back in the summer of 2022 I think I could've come to West Ham before. The manager has told me he's been after me for two years or so, so it's almost like it's inevitable that I'm finally here. I just can't wait to get going now."
Phillips also said: I've spoken to Dec [Rice] quite a bit about West Ham over time, and he's always said amazing things. I also get on well with Jarrod [Bowen], Ingsy [Danny Ings] and Prowsey [James Ward-Prowse] - I've not had chance to speak to them yet, but I'll look forward to seeing them in training!
England's always amazing, and I'll always remember my first call up. I was in the car driving to training in Leeds when Gareth Southgate phoned, and it took me a few seconds to pick up. After the call, I just screamed at the top of my voice!
Obviously Euro 2024 is coming up, which is very exciting. A lot of the players are doing amazingly at the moment - you look at people like Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham smashing it in Europe, for example - and there are a lot of good signs. Hopefully I can continue to play a part going into the summer."