Rate it!

0 votes

"Two years ago when I signed my last contract we talked a lot about the future, and we would be bringing a lot of big players and try to stay top in England and Europe," Ljungberg said after being presented at the club.

"For me that didn't really happen; there were always clubs wanting to sign me every summer but I always stayed and was loyal but when Henry left in the summer I felt like it was the end.

"I felt like it was the right time to go. it seemed that all these players were leaving around me and I had stayed.

"I'd been there for nine years... [West Ham] is the third club in my life. I feel Arsenal in my heart, but I'm here and we want to move forward."

Arsenal's transfer policy has, following their repeated decisions not to sell to the kind of wealthy investor that is taking rivals such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, Birmingham and West Ham into a new era, seen them slip to the down the pecking order when trying to sign players and struggle to hold onto big names.

But before criticising this supposed decline, Ljungberg was keen to point out that he was looking at the move as the chance to join a progressive club above being a decision to quit the Gunners.

"This is about why I want to join West Ham and not why I want to leave Arsenal," he claimed.

"I want to join West Ham because of [new chairman Eggert Magnusson] - he wants to bring West Ham forward to the top of the country. He wants to buy big players and he wants to use the great academy here.

"He wants me to help to bring the club up and make it a top club in England. [Arsenal] always said they wanted me to stay at the club. I felt it had to be something very special for me to leave. I'm coming here because they want to build a great team."

Ljungberg, 30, joined Arsenal from Halmstads in 1998 and went on to make almost 400 appearances for the Gunners over nine seasons. He had been linked to Fiorentina and Manchester City but West Ham have offered him a route to stay in London on the same wages he earned at Arsenal.

West Ham have returned to the market for a right-sided midfielder following an Achilles injury to new signing Julien Faubert, who will miss most of the season as a result of the blow.

They had been linked with Newcastle man Kieron Dyer but he is likely to stay at St James' Park after Joey Barton was ruled out for the first few months of the season.

Ljungberg joins the stricken Faubert, Scott Parker, Craig Bellamy and Richard Wright as West Ham's new signings this summer.

Reda Maher / Eurosport