Why West Ham United pose a threat to Premier League elites
The 2017/2018 season saw West Ham United battle relegation for the most part of the season. Following the appointment of David Moyes as manager on a six-month deal, after the sacking of the Croatian Slaven Bilic, West Ham survived relegation with two games to spare defeating Leicester City two goals to nil.
On 13 May 2018, his six-month deal expired and he left the club on 16 May 2018. West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan released this statement:
"When David and his team arrived, it was the wish of both parties that the focus be only on the six months until the end of the season, at which point a decision would be made with regards to the future. We feel that it is right to move in a different direction. We aim to appoint a high-calibre figure who we feel will lead the club into an exciting future for our loyal supporters within the next 10 days."
On 22 May 2018, West Ham United appointed Manuel Pellegrini as their new manager on a three-year deal contract. Pellegrini comes with bags of experience having coached big clubs such as Real Madrid, Villareal not to mention Manchester City, winning the premier league title and the league cup in 2013/2014 season, in the process becoming the first manager from outside Europe to manage a team to the English Premier League title.
In Pellegrini, West Ham have a very good and experienced manager. He will definitely turn around the brand of football at the London Stadium to an attractive and attacking one just as he did to that Manchester City team that were scoring goals aplenty.
Another thing of note has been the approach of the club in this summer transfer window so far. They are getting their business sorted out on time for the new players to blend in as well as signing some very good and technically-gifted football players who are capable of holding their own against the premier league "big guns".
At the beginning of the 2017/2018 season, they bought a very good player in Marko Arnautovic and this time they have broken their transfer record twice already. They signed Issa Diop for a club-record fee of about £22 million from French side Toulouse and Felipe Anderson for about £36 million in a deal which could rise to £41.5 million.
They have signed Jack Wilshere on a free from Premier giants Arsenal, Andriy Yarmolenko from Borussia Dortmund and Lukasz Fabianski from Swansea. Clearly, this is a statement of intent from the club. The 2018/2019 season could be a season of surprises and West Ham could just be one.