Slaven Bilic admits the Club are working hard behind the scenes to strengthen the squad in January and says they will look to attract players with Premier League experience.

The Hammers are set to lose three key players to the Africa Cup of Nations with Andre Ayew, Cheikhou Kouyate and Sofiane Feghouli departing next week.

Bilic has always maintained that he is happy with the quality of players he has in the squad, but will look to bring in more new signings if the right player becomes available.

Juventus defender Patrice Evra is the latest big name to be linked with a move to the east London Club, but the Hammers boss insists the former Manchester United defender is not a player they are looking to sign and has other targets that the Club will look to pursue over the coming weeks.

Bilic said: “I think we are the Club that are linked with the most players in Europe. 95 per cent of that is not true. It is definitely not true with Evra. He's a great player but in that position we are well covered.

“You have boxes you would like and you want the players to tick all the boxes. Young, cheap, scoring goals, if they have experience in the Premier League, they are handsome!

“Unfortunately you can't have players like that all the time as other clubs are looking for them. We are trying so many times. English and British players have priority as this is an English club.

“Even the great players need time to settle in. That is why we are looking for players who play in this league, then the risk is lower. But therefore the players are very expensive or very few, but we are trying to find them.

“In the African Cup we will be without Kouyate, Ayew, Feghouli, that's three, Sakho is not involved as he us injured.

“We don't have a big squad, but without three of them we are good if we don't get any injuries or suspensions but we are a bit overstretched.

“We're not panicking. We're trying to get a couple, maximum of three but we won't buy for the sake of it. If we find someone who can tick most of the boxes - apart from the handsome one - we will do it! If not we will hope that we won't get injuries.”