West Ham Expectations with an Unchanged Team Next Season

Fear is beginning to set in as the preseason and real season draw close for a West Ham team that still needs to sign players. What would expectations be if they didn’t actually do that, though?

This scary situation doesn’t include outgoing players, so the likes of Albian Ajeti who has already left and those who may be on their way out won’t affect this process. Still, West Ham needs and upgrade at centre-back, a depth forward, and most importantly a left-back. Without them can expectations improve?

The Positives

Just like Chelsea were forced with their transfer ban, West Ham could have a long look at some depth players who were out on loan or in the academy to boost their team. It’s embarrassing that manager David Moyes would essentially be having a ban put on him from his own owners, but I digress.

With no further strikers coming into the team, Xande Silva would be the big name to watch. He scored three goals in three games after returning from injury last year and would be an injection of pace off the bench.

Likewise, Carlos Sanchez is out so Josh Cullen is effectively a depth option for the team. Jack Wilshere technically would start ahead of him, but the club want him and his high wages gone, so the Charlton loanee could finally see his time come to step into the first team.

Along with Sanchez, Pablo Zabaleta and Jeremy Ngakia have both departed so Ben Johnson supersedes Ryan Fredericks at right-back. In reality, out best fullbacks are right-sided so we could see Johnson as a regular left-back this season to limit the use of Cresswell and Masuaku.

Could the academy be used even further? The main issue for the team is defensive depth and 18-year-old left-back Sam Caiger could see some action this year in the Cups or league play. Modelling his style after Phillip Lahm, Caiger prioritizes defence first, while still chipping in offensively as he was a midfielder growing up. He needs time to marinate in the U23s this season but he’s a name to watch.

Likewise, the name catching attention this year in the young preseason is Jamal Baptiste. The 16-year-old centre-back was invited to the senior pre-season camp in Scotland with the U23s already playing matches in England. Without much known about him just yet, he is the next big thing in West Ham’s academy.

The Negatives

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To be honest, without any external pressure the plan of supporting the first team with academy players who are homegrown is positive and very much what West Ham is all about. The issue lies in the destruction of the club’s ancestral home to pursue Champions League football, or so we as supporters thought.

The negatives about this situation are all internal and all come back to the board. David Sullivan, David Gold, and Karren Brady have all contributed to an atmosphere of distrust and lies between their board and the fans, with tensions boiling over on multiple occasions already.

The narrative was spread before the window opened, that clubs are in tough financially and won’t be making moves to improve their teams. So far Leeds, Sheffield United, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Southampton are all proving West Ham wrong. Even Norwich who were just relegated have offered to buy Jordan Hugill for 5m, a bid larger than the Hammers have lodged yet other than completing their obligatory signing of Tomas Soucek.

This self-imposed transfer ban means that Moyes will again have to struggle to improve his team’s position in the table after narrowly escaping relegation this year already. Reinforcements are needed, not a lot, but in a few key areas, and with a board continuing to cry the poor mouth, improvement isn’t guaranteed.

The Outlook

Can improvement happen at West Ham without any inbound new additions? It can, but it is highly unlikely. The defensive issues at left-back would see Johnson as a regular starter immediately or shortly thereafter, then effecting right-back where Fredericks has injury issues of his own.

Likewise, and injury to either Issa Diop or Angelo Ogbonna means an unreliable Fabian Balbuena, untested U23, or Declan Rice come to the rescue, further jeopardizing the team’s success in the long run of this upcoming season.

Fairytale stories can always happen and maybe a Nathan Holland, Grady Diangana, or Aji Alese come into their own given opportunity and help send West Ham closer to midtable, but you cannot rely on low-chance feel-good stories like these for sustainable success.

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Overall, without additions, this Hammers’ team cannot be expected to push on in seasonal play or advance further in Cup campaigns either. The reputation of the incompetent board and thus the team, in general, will continue to get dragged in mud and recruitment will become even more difficult as the club prove that they are undesirably run. It isn’t pretty, folks.