Breathe out everybody. This season wasn’t great for West Ham. We all know that but it could have gone far worse.
At the beginning of the season it was absolutely reasonable to think perhaps that West Ham would be spending the 2017-2018 year playing in the championship. Finishing 11th is something that while not wildly impressive on paper represents a rather sizeable achievement for a club that has had to deal with everything the club have had to this year.
Lets take into account everything that the Hammers had to weather over the course of one single season…
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Moving Stadium
West Ham played at Upton Park or the Boleyn Ground since 1904. Over 100 years of history and feeling and legend was a part of that stadium. Ultimately the move to the modern and far larger London Stadium was the correct move but some growing pains can be excused at the same time. What were the other options? Let Tottenham have it? Don’t capitalize on favorable legislature? Turn down the extra millions of pounds in revenue that it will create? The London Stadium is almost two times the capacity of Upton Park. It’s the right thing to do, but people should be allowed time to adjust.
Betrayal
Dimitri Payet betrayed West Ham. A man who gladly signs a five year contract for more than 3 times the amount of money in a week that the average East London living West Ham supporter makes in a year and then refuses to play for that club that they support is an absolutely non-respectable person. It’s pure and simple. He was a professional footballer who refused to do his job. I stand by the fact that the club should have frozen him out. Let him rot with the reserves and eventually apologize to the club when he was good and ready to behave like a man. Having a superstar, locker room leader, and quite frankly salary leader betray the cause like that would rock any football club.
African Cup of Nations
Though a magnificent sporting tournament the African Cup of Nations is the most frustrating thing to happen to club football management since the Bosman ruling. Players, good, world class players, taking off months in the middle of the season, is an absurd thing. The World Cup takes place during the summer. Even then the players should be resting but at least it’s not forcing them to miss regular season matches. West Ham’s record transfer Andre Ayew not only had to leave for the African Cup of Nations to play with Ghana but he got injured and spent most of the season either on the sidelines or out of form because of this. They also lost Cheikhou Kouyate who was a regular and dependable starter to international duty with Senegal.
Next: What's wrong with the midfield?
All that said an 11th place finish really isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Even with the same squad next year it’s possible that West Ham finish the season higher up in the places simply because of stability. That’s why I preached keeping Slaven Bilic. Solidarity and stability will do wonders for West Ham moving forward.