West Ham Calamity XI of the London Stadium Era

It has been a time of turmoil since West Ham moved to the London Stadium and although the current side has shown a lot of promise recently, there have been plenty of flops since the move to Stratford.

While supporting West Ham is a hazardous occupation, there is always hope at the end of the tunnel, but blimey that tunnel can be filled with disappointment and frustration. The hope that filled the hearts of fans when the stadium move was announced was gargantuan, but of course, this made the pain worse.

I have decided to compile the clubs most calamitous eleven to have come through the ever-revolving player door at West Ham since the move. Some of the players included may not have been lacking in talent but instead not lived up to expectation. I fully expect this to induce some horrific flashbacks to see these players wearing the claret and blue.

The team will play a traditional 4-4-2, I think a basic formation will get the best out of this calamitous motley crew.

Defence

Goalkeeper: Roberto

The Spaniard was signed as a back-up to Hammer of the Year Lukasz Fabianski and would have excelled in staying in that role. Unfortunately, Fabianski suffered a bad injury which would mean Roberto would have a run of games as number one.

This spell was disastrous for all concerned. Roberto was nowhere near reliable enough between the sticks meaning West Ham slid down the table after a promising start to the season. The bad form led to manager Manuel Pellegrini eventually losing his job and being replaced by David Moyes – brought in to help to save the club from relegation.

Roberto only managed one clean sheet during his run of games in which he conceded 21 goals in ten appearances in all competitions. This included four in a league cup drumming by Oxford United.

The 34-year-old was so bad he was replaced by David Martin, the club’s third-choice goalkeeper and has been out on loan in Spain since January.

Left-back: Patrice Evra

"“We have to bring in new blood who will die for the club. “They won’t be old journeymen, they will be young, energetic, fired-up players. “They might be 26 or 27, they might be 23, but they won’t be 32.”"

These are just some of the quotes attributed to David Sullivan. To be fair, Patrice Evra was not 32-years-old. In fact, the veteran full-back was thirty-six years old and played like it too.

Evra was signed to help cover for an injured Aaron Cresswell and inconsistent Arthur Masuaku. The Frenchmen makes his way into the side more so because of what he symbolises under the Gold and Sullivan ownership.

And that is big wages to players way past their prime. They will almost certainly not offer true value to the club in terms of playing ability and also in terms of resale value.

Centre-back: Jose Fonte

Jose Fonte was brought in to add some solidity to a fragile backline. In his first game, the Hammers were steamrolled by 4-0 at the London Stadium by Manchester City. The Portuguese centre-back even gave away a penalty in the build-up for the fourth goal.

Much like Evra, Fonte was a good player in his prime and was signed once he started to decline for an inflated fee of £8 million. The fee becomes more frustrating as it was a substantial chunk of the fee West Ham received for selling Dimitri Payet.

Fonte only managed to play 24 times for the Hammers due to many injury issues before moving to China. This move saw West Ham make a substantial loss on his transfer fee.

Centre-back: Fabian Balbuena

Balbuena is a more unfortunate case. Signing for a small fee of £3.5 million from Brazilian side Corinthians, the Paraguayan showed a lot of promise in his debut season in England. Sadly, he has never recaptured the form he showed since.

This could be down to a disappointing Copa America with Paraguay. As a result, he was forced to have a reduced pre-season and started the season very unfit. The ‘General’ then lost his place in the side to a resurgent Angelo Ogbonna and not looks set to leave the club once the transfer window opens.

Right-back: Alvaro Arbeloa

There was a lot of hope that Arbeloa would come into West Ham and nurture a young Sam Byram into the next great right-back. This, however, was not the case. On the pitch the Spanish veteran was so far off the pace of the Premier League.

Arbeloa spent most of his time at the club in the bad books of then manager Slaven Bilic after a bust-up on the training ground. This was followed by Arbeloa’s retirement, in which he stated that West Ham was the final nail in the coffin of his career.