It’s safe to say, West Ham have endured a horrendous start to the season, currently finding themselves third from bottom of the Premier League table.
The immediate assumption in such a scenario is to blame those on the pitch and indeed, Mark Noble and company have received their fair share of criticism from pundits and supporters alike this term.
Yet, performances on the field are often influenced by underlying factors and long-term decisions made at a much higher level than simply footballers collecting paycheques.
And it’s hard to dispute that West Ham’s owners, directors and management staff have made a series of incredibly worrying errors since the dying embers of a far more positive 2015/16 campaign.
With that in mind, ranging from transfer policy to naive public comments, we’ve outlined the six biggest errors the Irons have made since the end of last season.
The East London club need to address these as quickly as possible…
DECLARING TO THE WORLD THAT THEY’D SIGN A TOP-CLASS STRIKER
West Ham’s first mistake started all the way back in March, when co-owner David Sullivan declared to talkSPORT that signing a top-class striker would be the club’s biggest priority during the summer transfer window.
Aligning himself with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, albeit in obvious jest, only raised expectations amongst the East London faithful and soon enough, Twitter was littered with Hammers fans demanding bank-breaking bids for everybody from Jackson Martinez to Jordan Rhodes.
Combined with the rest of Europe being well aware of the Premier League’s incoming TV deal, that meant potential sellers could hold West Ham to ransom around the negotiating table – their succession of failed bids for Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette (once again made incredibly public) being the predominant example.
…BEFORE HAVING TO SETTLE FOR SIMONE ZAZA
Due to their aforementioned arrogance in telling the world a top-class striker would arrive at the London Stadium, West Ham found themselves in a rather precarious (and empty-handed) position as Deadline Day loomed.
Perhaps feeling the pressure of not fulfilling their self-declared objective, or perhaps genuinely concerned for their limited firepower, the Irons eventually agreed an incredibly bizarre deal for Simone Zaza.
A season-long loan with the obligation to buy after just ten appearances is a crazy arrangement seemingly spawned from the kind of budget-bending manoeuvres you’d commit to on Football Manager at 3 o’clock in the morning.
Zaza’s Premier League career thus far has consisted of no goals and just six shots, none of which have been on target.
THE WORLD’S WORST KIT LAUNCH
//players.brightcove.net/4221396001/60716998-ff67-4298-8bd7-2162e15a858d_default/index.html?videoId=5039089018001
Kit launches certainly aren’t the be-all-and-end-all, but West Ham put a disturbing amount of work into revealing a new shirt that’s almost exactly the same as last season’s.
Furthermore, the show included freestylers whose abilities were limited to doing kick-ups at slightly painful angles and the worst rapper of all time (shown above), who couldn’t stop saying ‘hashtag-united’ in a bid to try and give his cringe-worthy bars some much-needed flow.
And after all that, instead of rising to the stage on podiums in glamorous style, the players simply walked on via a staircase as unceremoniously as possible.
RECRUITING IN THE WRONG AREAS DURING THE SUMMER
On top of the striker fiasco, West Ham have left themselves with a top-heavy squad lacking reinforcements in the right areas.
Indeed, whilst summer arrivals like Gokhan Tore, Andre Ayew and Ashley Fletcher are exciting attacking players, it’s the Hammers’ defensive frailties that have seen them come unstuck this season, already conceding 17 Premier League goals – the most of any side in the division.
Nothing epitomises this more than the situation at right-back; winger Michail Antonio begun the season there and abundantly failed to deliver, whilst Slaven Bilic appears completely unconvinced by January signing Sam Byram. In fact, three different players have already filled in at No.2 in just seven league games, which tells its own story.
NO POLICING AT THE LONDON STADIUM
Whilst nobody can doubt West Ham got a fantastic deal out of the London Stadium, paying just £2.5million rent per year, it’s come with its fair share of consequences – most specifically, the abundant lack of policing inside the ground.
That’s lead to fighting between West Ham supporters, not to mention a poorly-trained security firm allegedly offering out fans for a bit of fisticuffs.
Overall, the move has been handled pretty terribly, with the stand-up-sit-down divide still ongoing and some seats having to be installed at a later date – leaving a few fans with nothing but concrete to sit on back in August.
Apparently the crux of the issue centres around Police radio equipment. But the Hammers have known about their move for years and this problem should have been addressed beforehand.
KARREN BRADY CLAIMING THE CLUB HAD ‘NO CULTURE’ BEFORE 2010
Karren Brady and West Ham have both insisted her words were taken entirely out of context. But nonetheless, the whole episode of claiming West Ham had ‘no culture’ – whether she meant corporate or otherwise – before her arrival in 2010 has left an incredibly sour taste.
Some fans have already become disillusioned with the move to the new stadium, not to mention the path the Irons have taken by re-branding their badge to appeal to a more global audience, creating the feel of a club trying to disassociate from its own history and heritage.
Coupled with poor performances on the pitch, Brady’s mistake couldn’t have come at a worse time.