Football Season Guide

West Ham start a new era in the coming season as the Croatian, Slaven Bilic, returned to Upton Park to take over as a manager. He was a fan favourite in his time as a player in East London and will be certainly given a more warm welcome than Sam Allarydce. The brash and outspoken Allardyce was never really liked by the Hammers faithful, even if he delivered good results more often than not, and his departure at the end of last season seemed inevitable for a while. It was disappointing to see now quickly the Hammers dropped off after a superb first half of the season saw them challenge at the top end of the table. There is definitely excellent talent in the squad as a whole and Bilic has been given the funds to further enhance his options in all areas of the pitch. Dimitri Payet, Angelo Ogbonna and Pedro Obiang are all pretty good signings who are really to step into the first-team and have lasting impact. Payet seems to be the pick of the bunch as he has been the leading assist-maker in the French Ligue 1 for the past couple of seasons and is highly flexible, direct and incisive in his actions. Stewart Downing surprisingly departed during the summer as the midfielder decided to return to his home club, Middlesbrough, even after enjoying a stellar last campaign in which he was the Hammers’ standout player. Alex Song will leave a sizeable gap in midfield as well but the players are there to step up and fill the void. One area of concern in the squad is the attacking department as some players there are still injured and some additional signings are needed. Bilic has never worked in England before and tends to divide opinion about his managerial qualities. He had a good spell at Besiktas over the last coupe of seasons but the Premier League is way more unforgivable and he will face high expectations from the word go. Thus, it is hard to pinpoint where West Ham can finish this season. On one hand, they have a pretty talented squad and might as well challenge for European places if they get off to a flyer. On the other hand, there is always potential for things to go awry quickly and a season of struggle at the bottom end of the table could be on the cards too.