Spector hoping to stay at West Ham

PRINCETON, N.J.—Contrary to reports that emerged from England recently that all but one West Ham player was on the selling block, United States national team defender Jonathan Spector says that as far as he's concerned, he’s a Hammer.

“I have one more season left at West Ham,” Spector said. “I didn’t see the report so I couldn’t comment on that. I have one more year on my contract there and I’m certainly happy to stay.”

He played in 22 league matches for the English Premier League club in 2009-2010 and helped the team survive a close call with relegation. West Ham finished just outside the drop zone in 17th place.

“It’s certainly important for us to keep our Premiership status, but overall I think it was a pretty disappointing season by our standards,” he said. “I think we have a good core group of players and we’ll certainly want to do much better than we did last season.”

The 2010 edition could very well have been the second World Cup for the 24-year-old Spector, who missed out on Germany 2006 with a dislocated shoulder. On Wednesday Spector sat out the end of US practice with tightness in his calf muscle. He did not consider it serious.

The projected right back for Bob Bradley's World Cup squad earned some high praise from the US manager on Wednesday, who compared his ability to play different positions with that of Manchester United’s John O’Shea.

“One of Jonathan’s qualities is his versatility,” Bradley said. “That works well for him with our national team and it clearly works well for him with West Ham. He can play really anywhere across the back line.”

“I’m naturally right footed and I like playing as a right fullback but I’m comfortable to play in any of the other three positions on the back line,” Spector confirmed.

While the Arlington Heights native gets ready for the World Cup, reports say that former Chelsea and Portsmouth manager Avram Grant is getting ready to take over at West Ham.

“I don’t know him personally,” Spector said. “He’s had some success in his career obviously, and I’m sure he’d be a good addition, but it’s speculation.”