West Ham United have endured a torrid start to the season and it all points to mistakes made in their summer recruitment.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic is under pressure already The Hammers were actually one of the busiest clubs of the window.
Slaven Bilic kicked things off by releasing the likes Alex Song, Emmanuel Emenike and Victor Moses from loan deals.
He also sanctioned the £10 million sale of defender James Tomkins to London rivals Crystal Palace.
West Ham brought in 13 players in total signing Manuel Lanzini, Havard Nordtveit, Toni Martinez, Domingos Quina, Sofiane Feghouli, Ashley Fletcher, Gokhan Tore (loan), Arthur Masuaku, Jonathan Calleri (loan), Edmilson Ferdnandes, Alvaro Arbeloa and broke their transfer record with the £20.5 signing of Andre Ayew from Swansea City.
The club looks set to break that record further still when – as expected – loan striker Simeone Zaza plays the 15 games that will trigger West Ham’s obligation to buy him for £25m from Juventus.
West Ham United’s Adrian, Dimitri Payet and teammates look dejected
But Bilic’s side have endured a terrible start to the season losing three of their first four games after squandering a 2-0 lead in a 4-2 defeat to Watford last time out.
With ill-feeling brewing between the club and fans on the terraces of the Hammers’ new 60,000 seater Olympic Stadium, Bilic and his side already find themselves under pressure.
The East Londoners have looked a shadow of the side which missed out on the Champions League places by just four points last season.
West Ham United’s Gokhan Tore has been woeful so far
And the club’s summer business has to take the brunt of the blame.
After such a magnificent campaign last season Bilic needed to only fine tune his squad and add real quality to improve certain areas.
Instead the club has filled the squad up with too many average or unproven players and loan signings.
Havard Nordtveit, Gokhan Tore and Jonathan Calleri have struggled to make any sort of impact so far.
The club were expecting European football and added to the depth of the squad accordingly.
But they were dumped out by Romanian minnows Astra Giurgiu and now Bilic has far too many players which will undoubtedly lead to unrest.
Headache for Bilic
The star name signing Zaza is only a loan while the sale of Tomkins looks a major mistake given that he was a A) a homegrown Hammer B) could play at centre back and right back and C) with James Collins and Winston Reid looking shaky already would have moved up the pecking order anyway.
The former Croatia manager has also not helped himself by constantly tinkering with his back five and in particular the central defensive partnership.
Bilic has earned the right to be given time to fix things.
But if West Ham don’t get points on the board in the next two months with a run of winnable fixtures that patience will be tested.
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