West Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes new signing Mauro Zarate’s experience at former Premier League side Birmingham City will help him settle quicker at Upton Park.

Allardyce told the clubs website: “The fact he knows the premier League and now has more experience and become more mature, he’s going to have evolved in terms of giving us a few more goals.

“Hopefully he is going to settle quickly and bring us those sorts of options that we need to be more successful in terms of goalscoring next season."

The Argentine striker scored 13 goals in 19 league appearances for Velez Sarsfield in 2014, having previously played for Birmingham City, Lazio and Inter Milan.

Allardyce added: “He is small, sharp and quick and as got good feet, so hopefully he can give us another dimension for what we don’t have in the squad at the moment.”