We’re just over a quarter of the way through the season and everything is not completely rosie in E13 E15 for West Ham. Despite successive narrow 1-0 victories over Crystal Palace and Sunderland respectively, the disappointing loss to Everton means that Slaven Bilic’s side remain stranded somewhere in bottom half wilderness – alongside teams that, on paper, are far inferior.
Most will blame the change of stadium or so-called ‘off-the-field’ problems, but if you put yourself in a claret and blue shirt, would that really bother you that much? The answer is probably not. So what other factors have contributed to the alarmingly high levels of mediocrity in the West Ham camp?
Summer Signings
West Ham made a grand total of 11 signings during the summer transfer window and the simple fact is this: none of them would get into a fully fit starting line up. Essentially, Bilic has formed an impressive back up side for Europa League games with his transfer kitty – but now that European football is no longer a reality, most of these signings now appear to be overpaid rotation players. Would you honestly start Feghouli and Ayew over the likes of Payet and Lanzini? Would you play Fletcher, Zaza or Calleri instead of Andy Carroll? And the less said about Gokhan Töre the better. The Hammers spent over £30 million this summer and plenty more on wages, and you can’t help but think they could’ve used the money to buy one major acquisition of high calibre to really set the league alight. Alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case.