We continue our in-depth interviews with Alireza Jahanbakhsh, as the midfielder nears the two-year anniversary of his time on the south coast.
You’ve been with us nearly two years now in one of the best leagues in the world – what are the biggest things you’ve learnt?
I knew there would be a lot of expectation on me when I moved to the club and the Premier League. People were expecting me to replicate the AZ form, but I always knew I can give more and perform better.
The first thing was adapting to England and the new environment and culture. It was a big challenge. My first season could have gone better, but since the beginning of this season I feel I’ve been training well and working really hard to perform for the team when I get a chance.
I didn’t feature much at the start of this season, but I was still very happy at the club. The city and people at the club are amazing – I have a really good relationship with everyone here.
Anywhere you go it takes time to get used to everything. I’m just trying to train well and stay in good shape to take my chance when I get given it. The fans have stuck with me and they’ve been great so that makes me really happy.
All of that hard work was summed up with those two goals in four days at the turn of the year wasn’t it?
Those goals against Bournemouth and Chelsea meant a lot, you saw that from my reaction. That feeling of relief helps you put the past behind you. That’s what I was doing even when things weren’t going to plan – I always look forward to better things.
But they’re in the past now. My focus is to give more good performances in the future.
There are nine big games on the horizon now aren’t there?
We’re not going to put too much pressure on ourselves. We know the quality we have in the side and we know we’ve given some really good performances this season.
There have been games where we deserved more, without a doubt, but now we can only look forward. The relationship between the players and coaches is great and we know what they want from us.
Since we’ve been back to training everyone’s looked sharp and hungry, we all want to give everything. There’s competition in the squad and I’m sure we’re going to do well between now and the end of the season.