1:50pm Wednesday 17th October 2007
By Tess McDermott
AS the transfer rumour mill rumbled away in the summer, Hayden Mullins was touted as 'certain' to be leaving West Ham.
With the arrival of Scott Parker and the development of Mark Noble, what chance did the midfielder have of finding a place on the bench, let alone in the first team?
But Mullins, who joined the Hammers from Crystal Palace in October 2003, proved his critics wrong.
The 28-year-old has featured in all ten of West Ham's games this season and is determined to keep fighting for his place.
"The club's going in the right direction. We're trying to become a top-half-of-the-table club. We're pushing for Europe and obviously the signings prove that," he said.
"There's a lot of competition for places throughout the whole squad - we've got a very big squad. I just felt that this is a very good club to be at and I made my decision to stay."
A move to Charlton was on the cards as part of West Ham's attempt to sign Darren Bent, but, said Mullins, when that fell through, he never had any doubts about where he wanted to be, despite the departures from Upton Park of close friends Nigel Reo-Coker and Marlon Harewood.
"They made the decision that was right for them and I made mine," he said.
Rather than complaining or worrying that he might not be first choice under manager Alan Curbishley, he got his head down and worked hard.
Mullins said: "It's about getting on with it and being professional.
"If you're not training right after you've been dropped or you sulk about then you're never going to be ready to take your chance. That's something that you learn over the years and I kept myself fit and kept myself going and when called upon and asked to perform, hopefully I've done it well."
Now, despite their recent run of three league defeats, he believes a European spot is still within the team's grasp.
He added: "The signings and the way the club is going forward, a lot of the players have more belief this season. We have a lot of big players that have been there before - UEFA Cup, Champion's League.
"They know what it takes to get there and they help the rest of the team as well as they can.
"If we want to get into Europe, we need to beat the teams like the Villas and the Newcastles and we've not done that yet, so it's not going to be easy.
"But we're going to prepare well and see what we can do."
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