West Ham sign Ryan Fredericks as Manuel Pellegrini completes first transfer

West Ham United via Getty Images

West Ham have landed their first signing under new manager Manuel Pellegrini after Ryan Fredericks agreed to join on a free transfer.

The right-back, who earned promotion to the Premier League with Fulham last season, has signed a four-year-deal. Fredricks turned down a contract extension offered to him in January when the club refused to meet his demands of becoming the highest paid player at Craven Cottage.

Fulham have long-expected Fredericks to leave and signed Republic of Ireland international Cyrus Christie as a long-term replacement from Middlesbrough in January.

Pellegrini is set to be handed an unprecedented £75million transfer budget for what is expected to be a busy summer as he and the Hammers board target European football within the next few seasons.

The 25-year-old, who will officially join the club on July 1, told the club website: "It’s amazing for this deal to finally happen.

"I know we’ve been speaking about it for a while and trying to get things in place and finally, we’ve got it over the line. I’m just buzzing to be here.

"West Ham United is one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League. Everyone knows the history of West Ham and there’s a lot of factors that brought me to the club.

"Obviously, it’s an exciting time for West Ham. The club have just brought in a new manager in Manuel Pellegrini and everyone knows his CV and what he has done in England before and in other leagues as well. I’m sure I can learn a lot from him.

West Ham United via Getty Images

"It just felt like, for the next step of my career, I would be best suited coming here."

Fredericks comes in as competition for Pablo Zabaleta.

The former Manchester City man was one of the most consistent performers under both Slaven Bilic and David Moyes last season, but doesn’t quite have the legs to be a threat on the front foot, while Sam Byram is expected to leave London Stadium after an injury plagued spell at the club.

Pellegrini added: “I am very pleased to welcome Ryan to West Ham United as our first signing this summer. He joins having had a successful season with Fulham and is a player who will bring great qualities to our squad.

Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

“He has good experience, with more than 150 senior appearances already but, at 25, he is still a young player with his best years ahead of him.

“Ryan has good character, is hungry to succeed, and has shown me that he has great desire to be a West Ham United player. I look forward to working with him.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in