It is clear that West Ham won’t be doing much business until a new manager is appointed however with the confirmation that they will receive a place in the Europa League through the Fair Play table meaning the season will start on July 2nd it is vital that the position start to be filled up soon.
A back up for Adrian has already been secured because, as expected, Jääskeläinen has left the club. Darren Randolph is his replacement and is worthy backup.
A most obvious place a player is need is in the right back position. Guy Demel is likely to be released and Carl Jenkinson has gone back to Arsenal, at least for the time being. The club are likely to try and get him back on loan again as his parent club don’t want to sell. Securing Jenkinson would help massively as he done such a good job this season. Another right back could be need as a backup for him unless O’Brien stays. For the first time in a few seasons a Centre back is not needed as they now have Tomkins, Reid, Collins, Burke, Oxford and Henry and in left back Cresswell and Hendrie.
Midfield will be the main target going into the new season. With Song gone and Nolan also likely to leave, we need players to go alongside Kouyate, Noble and Downing. At least two midfielders are needed, hopefully the Europa League means the fans and club finally get to see the best of the talented Poyet. A player like Song was, for the first half of the season, won’t be easy to replace it needs to be one of the two marquee signings the club would like to make. The midfielder that has been linked with West Ham the most is Sampdoria star Pedro Obiang, thought to be a very good player so that would fill one of the spaces that need to filled.
The final position that could be improved is the strike force, however the new manager wants to play Carroll and Sakho are the main players our strike force should be focused around, Carroll may be better suited for Europe games depending on the manager. Therefore a partner more reliable than Valencia is needed. Zarate and Maiga will return for pre-season with the rest of the squad so with the 5 of them who could all thrive, finally, under a new manager, only one striker would be needed. One name that has come up is Javier Hernández, this would of course be one of the marquee signing and if West Ham were to get him it would be a great buy but one that will be very difficult to pull off.
A new manager needs to be appointed as soon as possible to start getting these players in ready for West Ham United’s biggest season in years.