da bet sport： When West Ham United moved into the London Stadium a year ago, it looked like the world was a clay ball placed into their hands; for them to mould into whichever shape they found most pleasing. But it didn’t work that way.
da heads bet： A perfect storm of factors from new stadium teething problems to a multitude of injuries and player unrest leading to the mid-season sale of their best player scuppered the side’s progress. An early exit from the Europa League set the tone: this was now a squad of players inclusive of a plethora of new signings who were made with the extra workload of a European campaign in mind. August wasn’t even out before the Hammers were, too.
In the end, though, perhaps those ill-thought-through extra signings proved to be something of a blessing in disguise. More than 70 injuries last season – up from just 53 the season before – saw Slaven Bilic deal with arguably the most profound injury list in the league last year, and without those seemingly wasteful summer transfers, you wonder just how much worse the season could well have been.
A year on from the false optimism of last summer, Hammers fans may well be forgiven for dreading this campaign. And yet, perhaps this time there is genuine cause for an optimistic outlook which seemed so out of place a year ago.
After signing Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez, West Ham’s squad suddenly looks filled with the sort of talent and experience that should look more at home in a team fighting in the latter stages of the Europa League than looking over their shoulders at the relegation battle raging below them in the Premier League as the Irons found themselves doing last season.
The challenge for fourth that Bilic’s first season brought is perhaps overly optimistic this time around, given the dominance of the top six, but an assault on that final Europa League spot – or a domestic cup competition – shouldn’t seem beyond all possibility.
There are two concerns, however. One is a similar problem to last season: can all of the new faces gel together and hit the ground running? Last season proved that the Premier League is now split between the haves of the top sides and the have-nots who make up the rest. Getting left behind after just the first few weeks would be catastrophic. Slaven Bilic’s side have plenty of new players who you would expect to join the starting XI, and so many changes are always a difficult thing to manage.
On the other hand, it should be pointed out that the team most clearly in West Ham’s crosshairs this season is surely Everton, who have themselves made plenty of new signings for their starting team. If anyone from outside last season’s top six is going to challenge for access to the top places this season, it should be one of those two sides – on paper, at least. So it could well come down to which team’s new signings can settle the best.
The second current problem with West Ham’s summer business could well be fixed before the end of next week, let alone the end of the transfer window.
After signing some exciting and well-known talent, it’s natural to forget somewhat about the make-up of the side and focus only on the names, but the big summer signings seemed to address the problems with goals and attacking creativity as well as adding a right-back and a goalkeeper.
But whilst the added talent makes the team look excitingly strong, the spine of the side hasn’t really been strengthened. Jose Fonte arrived in January, and undoubtedly adds strength to centre back, so perhaps that’s not an area Bilic felt he needed to address as a matter of top priority this window, but the centre of midfield suddenly looks like a position where the Hammers don’t have the same calibre of top class player that they now look to have all over the pitch. Adding gold paint to the Bentley might look great, but if you have no engine it’s a waste of time.
If reports of a club-record £27.1m bid for William Carvalho are correct, and if the powers that be at the London Stadium can get that deal over the line, then perhaps that could be the signing which tips the balance in favour of West Ham in their potential duel with Everton. To go from a side with exciting talent on the peripheral positions, to one with talent in all areas of the pitch would be a signal of intent to make most stand up and take notice.
There will always be other problems, though. Can the players gel? Will the West Ham injury curse continue (and if it does, are there other factors like training regimes at play?) And perhaps some of the signings themselves just won’t turn out to be as good as many think they will be.
After being burned by a misplaced optimism a year ago, perhaps Hammers fans won’t want to get too far ahead of themselves right now. There’s also more to a good season than sound summer transfer business. But if how the team looks on paper is anything to go by, West Ham might just be a team to watch this season.