Steve Lomas believes that West Ham United’s summer window in 2016 was a defining moment in Slaven Bilic’s tenure.
The Hammers went into that window having just registered a seventh place finish in their final year at Upton Park, and it appeared that the club may be on the verge of something special under the Croatian.
However, their first year at the new ground proved to be a testing one as they finished in mid-table, and it has unfortunately got worse this season with the club currently in the relegation zone in the Premier League and Bilic being replaced by David Moyes in the dugout.
And Lomas has pinpointed the 2016 summer window as a turning point in Bilic’s tenure due to the poor recruitment.
“I felt really sorry for [Bilic] because if you look at it in isolation, finishing seventh and finishing 11th, it isn’t bad. But I think they have missed a trick and they’re still recovering from that window after they finished seventh. We bought a load of quantity, not quality,” he told The Debate on Sky Sports (broadcast on 8th November 2017 from 22:00).
Of the 13 players who were signed during that summer window, only six still remain at the club, and Manuel Lanzini – who had been on loan at the club the previous season – is arguably the one player out of the 13 to make a major impact for the side more than one year on, with the jury still out on a number of those acquisitions and a handful going down as Hammers flops, so it is no surprise that Lomas has identified the window as a turning point.
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