Five reasons Slaven Bilic might have lost the West Ham dressing room

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West Ham United fans have started speculating that boss Slaven Bilic has lost the dressing room and here’s five reasons why he might have.

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic

A woeful start to the season and life at their new 60,000 Olympic Stadium home has left morale on the pitch and in the stands at a new low.

Five defeats from the first six Premier League games is the club’s worst ever start to a season and Bilic’s side were also unceremoniusly dumped out of Europe in qualifying too.

Three back-to-back league defeats against Watford, West Bromwich Albion and Southampton saw the Hammers concede 11 goals.

So abject have West Ham been that it has also led to questions being raised over Bilic’s future with many fans speculating he may have lost the dressing room.

We take a look at five reasons why that could be the case.

West Ham United’s Simone Zaza was touted as the club’s big name signing

1) Signings

Off the back of a record breaking season where West Ham achieved their best ever Premier League points tally and first positive goal difference since 1986 many supporters felt only a handful of quality players and slight tweaking of the squad was needed.

Instead Bilic flooded his squad with 13 signings over the summer, many of them loans and most of them very average.

Whether some players have responded badly to their places being under threat, whether the team spirit has been impacted or simply the players feeling sorry for themselves it could have diminished the level of respect this group has for their manager.

Players that were already at the club cannot have been too impressed by the quality of the arrivals either which would also make them doubt their manager.

West Ham United’s Michail Antonio looks dejected

2) Michail Antonio debacle

If you lined up 100 West Ham fans at the end of last season and asked them what position needed strengthening, 99 of them would have said right back.

But Bilic had other ideas and wanted to mould Michail Antonio into a marauding right back after he performed well there deputising for the injured Carl Jenkinson last season.

That insistence saw West Ham start the season with him and young Sam Byram as their options for such a crucial position.

But Antonio’s poor form at right back, his good form in front of goal and unrest in the squad over the issue led to the players asking for a meeting with Bilic to discuss the situation as it was affecting morale.

That left the Hammers scrambling around in the latter stages of the transfer window for a right back and they ended up with Alvaro Arbeloa who was out of contract after being released by Real Madrid.

Diafra Sakho celebrates after scoring the first goal for West Ham

3) Dealing with Diafra Sakho

Striker Diafra Sakho is crucial to everything West Ham do. That was the view of Slaven Bilic last season when the Hammers were going through a sticky spell while the Senegal star was injured.

Fast forward a year and he has been exiled from the squad after a series of off the field problems, including a run-in with Bilic at West Ham’s training ground ahead of last season’s 3-3 home draw against Arsenal.

Sakho’s relationship with his boss has been strained and he did not travel with the side on their pre-season tours before a move to West Bromwich Albion collapsed over a failed medical.

The striker has not featured at all for the Hammers this season and the way the whole sorry saga has unfolded can only have had a negative effect on the squad.

Bilic will no doubt be forced to call on Sakho when he does return after the international break. What kind of message will that send to the rest of the squad? Behave how you like you’ll still play?

West Ham’s Reece Oxford

4) Handling of Reece Oxford

Meanwhile, prodigal young talent Reece Oxford’s long running contract saga has dragged on and on with the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City said to be interested in him.

The club had promised Oxford a clear pathway through to the first team but Bilic has rarely used the youngster and snubbed him for the League Cup game against Accrington Stanley in midweek too.

The defender and young teammate Marcus Browne posted disgruntled tweets about their lack of gametime afterwards in yet another example of dissent in the ranks at the club.

It now looks likely Oxford will leave the club.

Crystal Palace’s James Tomkins celebrates scoring their first goal

5) Sale of James Tomkins

In promising more game time to Oxford and his young teammate Reece Burke, Bilic elected to sanction the sale of homegrown Hammer James Tomkins to Crystal Palace for £10million over the summer.

At the same time the club handed a new two-year deal to ageing defender James Collins.

As the season has panned out there is little doubt Tomkins would most likely have played every game so far either in his preferred centre back role or at right back given the side’s struggles.

He would have added much needed experience and club knowledge having been with the East Londoners since the tender age of eight.

Currently starring at the back for Alan Pardew’s high flying Eagles, the Tomkins sale has been a major mistake. He was also a close friend and ally of captain and fellow homegrown Hammer Mark Noble who now finds himself trying to show a group of average foreign players the West Ham way.