Avoiding the Drop

Last Year’s Record: 14 wins, 9 draws, 15 losses for 51 points, but in 9th place due to a -3 goal differential.  Much like the rest of the middle of the league, they were better at home than away, gaining 29 points at Upton Park as opposed to 22 away from home.

Transfers (In): Peter Kurucz (Ujpest FC – undisclosed), Luis Jimenez (Internazionale – loan), Jack Lampe (Harlow Town – undisclosed), Frank Nouble (Chelsea – undisclosed), Fabio Deprela (Grasshoppers – undisclosed)

Transfers (Out): Joe Widdowson (Grimsby Town – free), Freddie Sears (Crystal Palace – loan), Kyle Reid (Sheffield United – free)

Season Outlook: Ah, West Ham United.  Too good to be relegated, nowhere near good enough for Europe.  You get the impression that if they could ever get some decent luck with injuries, they would be in the mix for at least a Europa Cup-level spot in the table.

Gianfranco Zola was hired as manager, and brought Steve Clarke over from Chelsea as his number two, and the Hammers immediately began to look much more professional and poised on the pitch.  This club had been through a number of managers over the last few years, none of whom were really able to instill a lot of zeal into the Irons faithful.  Zola and Clarke were the ones who finally said “Right, we ARE capable, we WILL win at home, and we WILL make ourselves known to the upper echelon of this league.”

Now, all that being said, it was yet another season of injury after injury for this seemingly snake-bitten club.  I started to count the man-matches lost to injury and needed to pull out my calculator.  However, there were some standouts amongst the walking wounded, and Carlton Cole was not the least of them.  Cole led the Hammers in league goals with 10, and truly started to live up to his immense potential.  He was the only double-figure goal scorer for Zola’s side, which showed that they had some truly capable squad players.

Robert Green was steady but unspectacular in goal, as it seems that even being mentioned for a national team spot is the kiss of death these days.  Defensively, Matty Upson was solid, and even though he was a handball waiting to happen, Herita Ilunga became much more steady as the year dragged on.  US National Teamer Jon Spector is still in the mix at West Ham, and one hopes his full health will stay with him so he can get some more top-flight experience this year.  The midfield was buoyed by the arrival of the young Jack Collison, who gave hope to the faithful, while the cast of thousands that West Ham usually employs were deployed week in-week out.  Valon Behrami, Luis Boa Morte, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Mark Noble, Scott Parker and another exciting newcomer, Junior Stanislas, all saw time in the midfield.  The strikers, other than Cole, were really nothing to write home about, but Dean Ashton is still there and raising hell.

So what to make of them?  Well, they haven’t done much in the transfer window.  There were rumours of them being interested in Luca Toni, but that seems to have been just rumours.  It appears that they will let Zola come into this year without any buys of consequence, but his jovial nature and can-do attitude rubs off.  The Hammers are decent, just nowhere near great.  The schedule is laid out decently for them and they don’t have Euro fixtures to worry about.  Could they make a run to a Euro spot?  Unlikely, I don’t think the firepower is there.  Will they beat some teams they probably shouldn’t?  Yep, they do it every season.  Is another 9th-12th place finish likely?  Indeed.