Can West Ham be future champions?

17 August 2015 09:48

Now when you read that title you probably thought I had lost the plot, but hear me out. It's been a roller-coaster ride for West Ham, after being relegated finishing bottom of the premier league in 2011 the hammers gained automatic promotion the following season and have established themselves as a mid table club under the guidance of much criticised Sam Allardyce. With many unhappy with the style of play Allardyce adopted he left the club after the 2014-15 season and brought in was former player Slaven Bilic.

Things are looking promising for the East London club, a new manager, new signings such as Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna and a move to the Olympic Stadium on the horizon. It would have disappointed fans that after qualifying for the Europa League through the fair play, West Ham weren't able to get past the qualifiers losing to Romanian side Astra Giurgiu. Despite qualifying through the fair play league the hammers had a man sent off in all three rounds of qualifying and some questioned whether they really wanted to qualify. There's no doubt that European football can hinder Premier League form, Everton are a prime example of that, the question has to be asked though why try and aspire to finish in a European qualifying spot if you have no intention of taking the competition seriously. With Sunday's Premier League opener against Arsenal in his mind, Bilic left a host of senior players at home while Kevin Nolan, Carl Jenkinson and Maiga were the only regular starters in the team.

All of that Europa League disappointment would have been forgotten about come the first game as West Ham were an impressive and solid outfit beating Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates. One noticeable addition to the squad was Reece Oxford, at just 16 Billic put him straight into defensive midfielder where he kept world cup winner Mesut Ozil out the game. Over the years the West Ham academy have brought through players such as Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, and Michael Carrick to name a few, many are tipping Oxford to be the next talent to come through.

The main priority for West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan is to assure they are playing top flight football next season as they move into 54,000 seater Olympic Stadium. So what does the future hold for West Ham, their progress represents a similar pattern to that of two time title winners Manchester City. After gaining promotion back to the Premier League City established themselves into a mid table club before capitalising on the commonwealth games by turning the athletics stadium into their new home, much similar to West Ham moving into the Olympic Stadium. The potential could be for West ham to be taken over in the future in a sport where money is becoming more and more a factor in how successful a club is. West ham being based in the capital city of London will definitely help the cause and if a billionaire came investing it could surely skyrocket them to title contenders much like Manchester City did. In the short term fans will be looking forward to the last season at Upton Park and hopefully a high place finish to end an era before the start of a new chapter in 2016.

Source: DSG