West Ham have announced the signing of winger Matt Jarvis from Wolves in a club-record deal reported to be worth up to £11m.
The 26-year-old has put pen-to-paper on a five year deal and goes straight into the squad that will face Swansea tomorrow (Saturday). He will wear the No.7 shirt.
Jarvis told whufc.com: “I’m delighted to have signed. It’s a fantastic club and I’m pleased to be here. It’s a great club and it’s got great history and tradition. I know about Bobby Moore and the history and tradition that go with that.
“I’ll be playing with some fantastic players and it’ll be great to get into training and I’m looking forward to playing with them. Hopefully I will add a bit of pace, crossing and deliveries that will provide some assists.
“It’ll be straight in and hit the ground running. There’s no time to think about it, you’ve just got to get on with it, which is good. I hope to train with the team today and then travel up to Swansea.”
Manager Sam Allardyce, who had been tracking the winger all summer, was understandably delighted to have finally got his man following the announcement of his ninth summer signing.
He told the club’s official website: “Certainly from an attacking sense he is one of the best final-third crossers in the Premier League and his stats were very good at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“He delivers in the business end of the field and creates a lot of chances and is a player that can give opposition defences an awful lot of trouble. We are hoping he will produce that for us.”
Middlesbrough born Jarvis started his career at Gillingham and earned a moved to Wolves in 2007 after making 110 league appearances in four years for the Gills, scoring 12 goals.
A successful five years at Molineux saw Jarvis score 19 goals in 164 league appearances and he earned his first England cap in a friendly against Ghana in March 2011.
League Two side Gillingham are expected to receive a substantial amount of Jarvis’ transfer fee due to sell-on clause in his contract at Wolves.