With another three points in the bag after another scrappy, ugly win away to Sunderland, we find ourselves in 11th place on 37 points.
It would take a monumental effort for the likes of Fulham, Sunderland and Cardiff to overtake us now, so our season is pretty much finished.
We’re just waiting for the fat lady to sing. Our last two games against Hull City and Sunderland were not exactly pretty, but I’d rather have the three points by playing ugly than playing beautiful football and losing.
So is that it? Is this as good as it’s going to get? Avoiding relegation again is deemed a successful season at West Ham these days. Every year it’s the same. Avoid the drop, take a few positives from another mediocre season, sell or release the under achievers, talk a lot about how next season will be different, buy a handful more of other team’s fringe players and repeat.
But this endless cycle of football mediocrity cannot go on forever. Something needs to be done.
So far this season we have scored a grand total of thirty six goals, and that is simply not good enough. I cast an enviable eye at Liverpool and see their goal tally currently at an incredible 88 goals so far. That’s more than double our tally. And 49 of those goals have come from Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.
Our top scorer is Kevin Nolan with seven but, I think if Andy Carroll was able to give us a full season, he could reward us with 15 or more goals.
But one thing is for sure, with effectively nothing else to play for, the staff at West Ham need to start looking for quality new players NOW, rather than wait until the summer or even after the World Cup.
Identify the players Sam wants, scout them, negotiate with the agents and get them in as soon as possible so we can hit next season running rather than playing catch up as usual.
With the likes of Joe Cole, Ricardo Vaz Te, Matty Taylor, Jussi Jaaskelainen, George McCartney set to be released and Pablo Armero, Marco Borriello and Antonio Nocerino set to return to their parent clubs, more quality players will be needed. Not just gap fillers, or panic buys, we need quality in order to step up to the next level. A level worthy of a team playing in the Olympic Stadium.
If our budget is tight then there is a plethora of free talent this summer to improve any team. The likes of Xavi Alonso, Diego Milito, Miroslav Klose, Joleon Lescott, Bacary Sagna, Blaise Matuidi, Andrea Pirlo and Samuel Eto’o to name just a few.
Am I aiming too high? Possibly.
But then if you have nothing to aim for you have nothing to play for.
