West Ham United coach Slaven Bilic has explained his reasons for signing Ghana deputy captain Andre Ayew to the club.

The 27-year-old made the move to West Ham from Swansea City in August 2016, for a fee believed to be in the region of £20 million, but suffered horrendous luck with injury, and was forced off just 30 minuted into his Hammers debt against Chelsea, subsequently going on to miss the next two months of the season.

He then faced further disruption to his Premier League campaign in January with his participation in the African Cup of Nations with Ghana.

Ayew is back playing regularly for Slaven Bilic's side, however, and the Croatian explained how important he is to his team, highlighting the main reason he brought him into the club last summer, as quoted by WHUFC.com:

"Now he looks really good. That’s the reason we bought him – he has that sense to be in the right place at the right time. He scored like that against Swansea, he scored like that against Watford and he scored a similar kind of goal again on Saturday. That’s a big quality for the strikers to be in a good position, so now he’s back in good shape and of course we expect him to improve us.”

The East London outfit will need Ayew to be at his very best during the remainder of their campaign, with vital games coming up against teams below them in the table such as Leicester City, Swansea City and Hull City.

And he will need to start scoring more regularly if he is to justify his hefty price-tag.