Mascherano Wants a Chance at West Ham

In today's Guardian Mascherano claims that he wants to remain at West Ham and that he wants to play in the first team,

"I don't know anything about our new coach, Curbishley, but I hope that he starts from scratch with all of the players and each one has a chance to play. They've given me great references about our new coach, but my only concern is to prove that I'm not a bad player as some would like to have you believe.

I've nothing to lose because they don't give any privileges to anybody here. They say he is an experienced coach and I suppose that he will get to know each of us in time and now more than ever during training. Then he will decide who to play.

Pardew was very excited when Tevez and I first came but slowly his trust in us diminished and we were left out of matches. It was frustrating for me to be left out of the team on a lot of occasions, but as a professional I have to accept it and keep working each day and continue to play with the second team. This wasn't fair, in my opinion, but I was hoping for more of a chance and this hurt me.

It hasn't crossed my mind to leave the Premier League after being unsuccessful here. But if I'm still not playing, things get complicated.

Our team-mates have welcomed us well and, what with the language problem, I can't complain as to how they've treated us. I came to the Premier League really excited about it all, because I wanted to be successful at West Ham. This was my aim and it still is, but I haven't had enough opportunity to see if this will be possible."