Ledley King has revealed that his knee problems gave manager Juande Ramos a bad first impression of the centre-half.
King said: “It was difficult as he was a new manager coming in and didn’t know me.
“I was injured when he arrived and the first impressions were probably not good as managers like fit players.
“It took a while for him to understand the problems I had and how we had to deal with the situation.
“He probably never had a player the way I played last season, playing a game then missing one as the knee wasn’t right.
“I worked hard when I wasn’t playing. I had to do that as I had a month without playing. Juande’s help was great and we worked together.”
On the club’s hopes of breaking into the top four, he said: “Within the group we believe we’re capable of finishing in the top four. We’ll be disappointed if we don’t.
“We’ve got the talent to do it but it’s a lot more difficult than just talking about it.
“You have to be willing to grind results when you’re not playing so well and get results away from home.
“We’ll have to do that if we want to break in the top four.”