Stadium: The Boleyn Ground (capacity: 35,016)
Manager: Slaven Bilić (first season)
Nickname: The Hammers, The Irons
2014-15 Record: 47 points (12-11-15), 12th in the Premier League
20 Premier League Previews in 20(ish) Days: West Ham
This coming season will be the final one at the Boleyn Ground for West Ham United as they move into the roomier Olympic Stadium. With this bigger stadium, the club hopes a corresponding rise in status will follow.
The most recent accomplishments West Ham can claim are a third place finish in the First Division (the Premier League’s predecessor) in 1985-86 and an FA Cup title in 1980. But the East London club has a huge area to pull support from, fairly wealthy owners and are about to see a huge increase in revenue from moving to this larger stadium.
The Hammers’ now-departed manager Sam Allardyce did a good job getting West Ham promoted back to the Premier League in 2012 and keeping the Hammers in the league for the next three seasons. But the football was hard to watch and clearly the team hit a proverbial ceiling under Allardyce by the second half of last season.
Last season was truly a tale of two halves as West Ham were fourth in the Premier League at one point in November and at the end of 2014 were in sixth place. The high point of last season was a 2-1 home win over defending champions Manchester City.
But the second half was another story and they only won two of their final 15 matches, sliding into a 12th place finish. Allardyce was sacked minutes after the final match at Newcastle, leaving only memories of boring football and his awkward encounter with Russell Brand in his last few months.
Slaven Bilić, who most recently managed at Beşiktaş in the Turkish Super Lig from 2013-15, takes over with the expectations he will deliver exciting football and a top half of the table finish. Bilić played for 19 months at West Ham in 1996-97 and arrived for a then club-record £1.3 million transfer fee. While at West Ham Bilić was called up to the Croatian national team (which he also managed from 2006-12) and helped lead his side to 14th place and Premier League survival in 1997.
Believe it or not, Allardyce bought some intriguing players last summer and West Ham’s owners have opened their pockets for even more spending this summer. There are some bigger names than perhaps you’d expect that are on the team now.
Though they were knocked out early, it helped sell the club that they got into the UEFA Europa League competition this season by topping UEFA’s Respect and Fair Play Rankings for Premier League clubs.
It is a statement of intent and no matter what your allegiance it will be interesting to see whether aggressive investment will translate into a club that is consistently in the top half of the Premier League and competing for European competitions.
New Faces: Dmitri Payet — attacking midfielder (Marseille), Angelo Ogbonna — centre-back (Juventus), Pedro Obiang — central midfielder (Sampdoria), Stephen Hendrie — left-back (Hamilton Academical), Manuel Lanzini — attacking midfielder (Al-Jazira — loan), Darren Randolph — goalkeeper (Birmingham City), Carl Jenkinson — right-back (Arsenal — loan)
Dimitri Payet is unequivocally the best signing amongst the less high-profile ones to come to England. Payet has been playing in Ligue 1 since he was as a teenager in 2006 for Nantes. While Payet has scored 71 career goals, his speciality is passing and in two of the last three seasons notched 20 or more assists. West Ham paid £12 million to Marseille for his services, so rest assured he will probably not spend much time on the bench.
Another new arrival who has played at a high level since he was a teenager is centre-back Angelo Ogbonna. He made his debut in Serie A with Torino in February 2007. Most recently, Ogbonna played the last two seasons for Juventus as they won Serie A both seasons. He also made four appearances in the Europa League and three in the Champions League at Juve.
Carl Jenkinson, a right-back and former England U21 international, returns on loan from Arsenal and is hardly a new face to Hammers supporters as he made 36 appearances in all competitions for the club last season.
One other defensive signing, Scottish left-back Stephen Hendrie, is more of one for the future at 20 years of age. However, that is not set in stone as Hendrie made 100 appearances at Hamilton Academical in both the Scottish Championship and Scottish Premier League from 2011-15.
Pedro Obiang made his professional debut as a teenager in Serie A for Sampdoria in 2011. While playing for Sampdoria Obiang made 139 appearances and scored four goals. He mainly appeared as a deeper-lying defensive midfielder. He has also made appearances for the Spanish national team at the U17, U19 and U21 levels.
Darren Randolph comes in as a solid back-up option at goalkeeper to the current number one Adrian. Randolph only missed one game for Birmingham City in the last two seasons in the Championship. An Irish international, he also made 136 appearances in three seasons at Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League from 2010-13.
Finally, 22-year-old Argentine Manuel Lanzini comes on loan from Al-Jazira of the United Arab Emirates Pro League. Lanzini was the youngest foreign player in the history of the Pro League and scored eight goals in 24 appearances last season for Al-Jazira. Prior to that Lanzini played for the iconic Argentine club River Plate and has represented Argentina internationally at the U20 level.
Familiar Faces: Cheikhou Kouyaté — central midfielder (four goals in 32 appearances), Aaron Creswell — left-back (two goals in 42 appearances), Diafra Sakho — striker (12 goals in 26 appearances), Mark Noble — central midfielder (one goal in 35 appearances), Adrián — goalkeeper (42 appearances), Winston Reid — centre-back (one goal in 31 appearances).
Despite not ever being a very popular figure at West Ham, Sam Allardyce did bring in some good players in last summer’s transfer window.
Aaron Creswell joined last summer from Ipswich Town and did not look uncomfortable at any point last year at left-back, despite making the jump from the Championship to the Premier League. Creswell appeared in all 38 of the Hammers’ Premier League matches and was voted the “Hammer of the Year” for 2014-15 by club supporters.
The Senegalese duo of central midfielder Cheikhou Kouyaté and striker Diafra Sakho arrived last summer and both had successful seasons. Sakho led the Hammers with 11 goals in all competitions, including the deciding goals in matches against Manchester City and Sunderland. Kouyaté played mainly as a defensive midfielder but did score four goals including one against Manchester United in a 1-1 draw.
West Ham’s defence, including Creswell, is a very impressive unit. Winston Reid, the New Zealand national team captain, has made 135 appearances since joining the Hammers in 2010 and was the 2012-13 Hammer of the Year. James Tomkins, a product of the West Ham youth system, has made 215 appearances since his debut in 2008. In addition Tomkins has scored two goals in four Europa League matches this summer.
One of the most intriguing players to watch will be striker Andy Carroll, the always-ponytailed and stereotypically English striker who never seems to stay fit. In 2012-13 Carroll did make 24 appearances and score seven goals while on loan at West Ham from Liverpool. But since signing permanently in the summer of 2013 Carroll has only made 30 appearances and scored seven goals in that time.
Completely Unscientific, Somewhat Unbiased Prediction: 9th
I am putting a fair amount of faith in the new signings like Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna to make an immediate impact.
It’s hard not to get excited about a player of Payet’s pedigree and ability. Just to play devil’s advocate here, many well-known players have struggled making the transition from Ligue 1 to the Premier League. This is not to say that he will be a success or failure, just that there is a good chance he will need some time to adjust to the competition.
Unlike the majority of their league counterparts the Hammers have already started playing early round Europa League matches against teams from Andorra, Malta and Romania. Yesterday, West Ham were eliminated by the Romanian club FC Astra Girugiu in a 2-1 defeat, which sent the Hammers out on a 4-3 aggregate score. While the Europa League is not more important than the Premier League, tonight’s result should bring West Ham supporters down to earth a bit.
Slaven Bilić has ties to the club and a fair amount of experience managing, but this will be his first time managing in the Premier League and supporters have already questioned his tactics and team selections for Europa League matches. It seemed to be the right move to replace Allardyce and Bilić was as good a choice as any out there.
