Marko Arnautovic insists he is devoted to living up to his £27 million price tag and feels that manager David Moyes is right to have faith in him.
Since his move last summer, it has taken the 28-year-old a while to hit the ground running.
With a red card in only his second West Ham game and supporters having to wait until his 11th Premier League appearance for his first goal, Arnautovic was soon to be regarded to as a flop.
A man on a mission
Roll forward three months the Austrian has now scored five goals in his last six games as well as turning provider for Andy Carroll's winner in their 2-1 win over West Brom last time out.
The victory took the Hammers out of the relegation zone and Arnautovic finally feels that he is starting to live to the presupposed hype that his transfer fee created.
"I hear people saying, ‘He came for £27m and he’s done nothing for us’, I want to show people, especially the haters, what I am capable of and bring this club up with everything I have got. " Arnautovic told the Daily Telegraph.
"The fans pay to come to the stadium to see your performance and I want to show the club that they didn’t pay so much for me for nothing.”
"I am 28 and still not where I want to be."
Having made the move from Werder Bremen to Stoke City in 2013, he came to England with a bad reputation.
He experienced troubled spells at the German outfit and at his former side Inter Milan, where the then manager Jose Mourinho brandished him of having the attitude of a child.
However, the winger has since matured, seen especially during the win over Stoke.
He was substituted in the second-half and walked off to a cacophony of boos. His removal even prompted one spectator to throw a scarf in his direction.
A Changed man
The Arnautovic of a previous decade may have reacted to the bait but he claims that his parental upbringing has taught him to be better than that.
"My parents made it easy for me but I always chose to be the other way,” he explained.
“I wasn’t a gangster or anything but out on the estate playing football in the streets, not on the grass but on the asphalt."
The Austrian continued: “After school every day I went to the park and we played the whole day. My brother was playing as well and he was probably a bigger talent than me. Now he’s my agent.
“He chose to go to the clubs until four or five o’clock in the morning and not focus on football.
"I’m happy I got away because my parents and my brother pushed me away from the bad things and to focus on football." Arnautovic candidly admitted. "I was scared a career in football would never happen if I carried on.
“When I was with my friends of course there were fights. But I was always telling them, ‘Think about this – don’t rob someone and go to jail when you are young, for nothing. If you rob someone you might have money but you’ll need to do it again every three days. Whereas if you work you will have steady money every month’.
“I now have two daughters and one day they will read everything about their dad. I want them only to read good things about me. No scandals or anything.”
Arnautovic is expected to be in the side who travel to Tottenham Hotspur Thursday night and will be looking to assist West Ham in their bid to extend their unbeaten streak to three.