Australia international Neill was criticised after his January decision to walk out on Blackburn and turn down the chance of European glory with Liverpool for a reported $175,000-a-week salary with the relegation-strugglers.

To make matters worse the defender was injured in his first match for the Hammers, missed three of the next four games and looked like sliding into the Coca-Cola Championship until their miraculous late escape.

But manager Alan Curbishley, who attacked the 'Baby Bentley', rich-kid culture among top players when he took over at Upton Park just before Christmas, has named Neill as his new captain.

He replaces midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who left under a cloud in a £7.5million move to Aston Villa last month.

"I only learned about this an hour after coming back from Asia this morning when the boss asked me if I was ready to train and that he was about to announce me as the new captain," said Neill.

"It is a big honour and although I don't feel I really have anything to prove to anybody I want to show to myself and West Ham just how much it means to me.

"Some of the things that were said when I first signed hurt me a bit and I feel I've already vindicated myself a little but the reason I joined West Ham was that it was made very clear to me that I was going to be an important part of the team. This proves it.

"A lot of huge names - like Bobby Moore - have captained West Ham in the past and I'm still millions of miles away from that but I'm going to do the job as best I can and I'm looking forward to it."

Neill felt the need to defend himself for the criticism he received last season, stressing he was an integral part of the successful relegation battle.

"When I first arrived and then got injured I could have sat on the bench and just picked up my wages if I had only been coming for the money," he added.

"But although I damaged some ligaments in my ankle and also hurt my knee I only missed three games.

"It was a risk coming back when I did but the gamble paid off and I like to think I played my part in what became a 10 or 11-game season to survive going down."

Having escaped relegation on the final day of the season West Ham have had to deal with the on-going dispute over Carlos Tevez but Neill stressed the rest of the squad were just looking forward to the new season with greater expectations.

"We have enough leaders in the squad to achieve much better things this time," he said.

"A lot of us new guys had no control over the bad start West Ham made to last season. We've drawn a line under that and, hopefully, we can start as well as we finished last term and get to 40 points as quickly as possible.

"It will be my job to oversee what looks like being a very lively dressing room and that is healthy.

"We will all be open to our own criticisms and I dare say I'll have a few bad games like everybody else but the aim is to reach the level we know we are capable of reaching on a consistent basis and be nearer the top six than the bottom six."