Newton: Hammers must build for the Premiership

Shaun Newton warned West Ham manager Alan Pardew he has a difficult summer ahead as the club build for their return to the Premiership.

Midfielder Newton was part of the Hammers side that beat Preston in Monday’s Championship play-off final to win promotion to the top flight and an estimated £20m (€30m) jackpot.

But the 29-year-old hinted Pardew had much work to do to put together a squad capable of remaining in English football’s top division.

“The Premiership is very unforgiving,” said Newton. “You need to have a squad of quality players.

“There are a lot of players out of contract, the club have money to buy players now but they can’t go too silly with that money.

“So it’s up to the manager and the board, and hopefully they will get it right and keep West Ham in the Premiership.

“There are a lot of young players here who deserve to be in the Premiership, and there are other players that want to be back in the Premiership.

“We have a mixture here and hopefully the manager can add to it.”

Newton joined the club until the end of the recently-concluded season on transfer deadline day from Wolves for a nominal fee.

And although his future at Upton Park has yet to be resolved, the former Charlton player – who was also successful in play-off finals with the Addicks and with Wolves in the old Division One – Newton indicated strongly he would remain.

He continued: “There have been discussions, and hopefully I will be here next season – and most probably it will be like that.

“I’ve done what I came here to do, which was to get West Ham promoted, now we can see where we go from here.

“I made it clear from the outset that I wanted to stay here. I’m back in London, playing for a big club, and my family wanted to settle here.”

West Ham captain Nigel Reo-Coker – one of the best players against Preston at the Millennium Stadium – was more optimistic than Newton about the current squad’s chances of Premiership survival.

The 21-year-old midfielder is part of a group of talented young players – Mark Noble, Anton Ferdinand, Elliott Ward and Matthew Etherington are among the others – around whom the east Londoners will look to build for the future.

“We have a good chance in the Premiership,” insisted Reo-Coker. “But we can only celebrate for a couple of days; then we must concentrate on the task in hand.

“I think we have a fantastic squad here. There are some great young players coming through.

“There is a good mixture of young players and experienced players, we are well-equipped and I think we’ll be good enough for the Premiership.”

Newton, meanwhile, was able to reflect on a third play-off final success after triumphing with Charlton in 1998 and with Wolves in 2003.

He rates his latest achievement as his best – but he would rather not go through the experience again.

“The play-offs have been good to me: three times I have played in the final, and three times I have won,” he added.

“I’m going to state now that I don’t want to be here again, because I think my luck could run out.

“Charlton were close to my heart, and Wolves hadn’t been in the top flight for 19 years, but this is the special one for me because it’s the third time.”