Sometimes you just have to have a little patience.After a few weeks of getting nervous over a perceived lack of transfer activity, West Ham United fans can now reflect on the fact that their club’s owners had been working behind the scenes to bring in four new signings so far this window, each one an exciting addition to a squad of players who underperformed massively last season.The Hammers have taken Joe Hart on loan from Manchester City, to join up his former team-mate Pablo Zabaleta and record signing Marko Arnautovic, as well as former Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez.Those were signings made with quality in mind, and they make the potential starting XI for next season look very competitive indeed. Add to that the January signing of Jose Fonte, who adds – at the very least – an extra quality to the depth of centre-back options. Then you start to uncover what is, on paper, perhaps the best West Ham United team of the Premier League era, certainly in the starting XI.Supposing some sort of 4-2-3-1 formation, England’s number one goalkeeper would join a solid and experienced back four, two £20m+ signings in Andre Ayew and Marko Arnautovic either side of Manuel Lanzini, who can play just behind Javier Hernandez, a proven goalscorer in the Premier League and in Europe.
But whilst that leaves the Hammers looking like having one of the most impressive starting XI’s in the league, things do still feel a little light in one department: central midfield.
Behind Manuel Lanzini, who you’d expect to start as a number 10, the midfield two don’t quite have the same stellar feel as the rest of the starting lineup, even if the central berths didn’t exactly look like a problem area before the start of the summer.
But after some exciting signings in other places, it now looks like arguably the weakest part of the side, with Mark Noble, Cheikhou Kouyate and Pedro Obiang the current best options for Slaven Bilic.
It hardly represents a dearth of experienced Premier League talent, but in relation to the rest of the team, it certainly looks like a step below. More importantly, though, the clubs in and around where the Hammers should be in the table are also splashing vast amounts of cash making their teams better.
Last season saw the Premier League’s top six clubs consolidate their power, the gap between Manchester United in sixth and Southampton in eighth was a massive 23 points, whilst Everton in seventh found themselves in no-man’s land eight points behind United.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story as far as Everton were concerned: only one win in their last five games meant that the Toffees didn’t end the season challenging the top six, though they presumably weren’t too bothered – given Arsenal and Manchester United won the domestic cup competitions, Everton were assured a Europa League spot for finishing seventh anyway. It was only when the possibility of a top four spot started to fade that the team themselves faded, too.
And yet, this summer, Ronald Koeman’s side have spent huge amounts of money upgrading their squad, even if they’ve recouped much of it with the sale of Romelu Lukaku. What that means for West Ham – who are surely the club best placed to challenge Everton for a finish in the European spots – is that they can’t be content with a squad which is weak in central midfield.
Now, let’s be fair, West Ham have already broken their transfer record this summer, and their obvious ambition in signing such big-name players is surely above reproach, and there’s also plenty of time left in the window to add more midfield cover. The fact that Jack Wilshere has been linked with the club also shows that they are a team now looking to their midfield as a position where they want to strengthen.
There’s also a danger of adding too many players for the squad to cope with – last season, West Ham faced a similar problem, adding 11 players last summer – 12 if you count Manuel Lanzini, who made his loan move permanent – most of whom flopped terribly.
Adding players in such numbers was always bound to unsettle the squad, even if the extent of the disruption was more than Slaven Bilic might have bargained for. This summer won’t reach the same level, but it’s a balance which has to be struck.
But that’s the balancing act: the problem of making the signings needed to be competitive with the clubs at the top of the table, but also not wanting to suffer through a settling-in period for all of the new signings. But in such a tightly-packed Premier League, you get the feeling that West Ham still need another central midfielder to become truly competitive.