With a new manager in place and over £150m spent on no less nine new players in the summer, West Ham fans have been urged to be patient this season.
Calls for change towards the end of the David Moyes’ four year tenure had many on the outside labelling Hammers fans as ‘entitled’ and accused of demanding ‘fantasy football.’
Indeed, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Fans just wanted to see their team want more of the ball and make proper use of the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen.
So far, under Julen Lopetegui, many will be fooled into thinking it has been much of the same. The reality is, half of the summer signings have been bedded in properly yet and our only two league defeats so far have been against Champions League Aston Villa and the greatest team on the entire planet in Manchester City.
Yes, performances haven’t exactly been the opposite of what we saw under Moyes, but there have been some visible improvements.
Nonetheless, such upheaval in players, a new manager and a new playing style is never going to be an overnight success. These things take time. Certainly longer than four games, too.
Despite dreams of competing in Europe again and pushing for major silverware, this season’s reality is we’ll likely have to settle for a mid-table finish. Next season is when we should be looking towards Lopetegui and his squad for signs of real progress.
And with that in mind, a super computer has predicted West Ham’s final Premier League finish this season, and it currently looks to be true to form in terms of where expectations should be at this stage.
According to The Analyst’s predictions, West Ham currently look most likely to finish 10th or 11th, with a 11.4% chance for both positions.
Any higher and we’re looking 10.3% chance of 9th and 8.3% chance of 8th, while Europa Conference League qualification via 7th has a 6.4% chance after just four games of the season.
That’s probably about right given all the changes the club has experienced over the last few months.
Obviously it’s still early days, so it’s likely we’ll see those predictions swing quite drastically over the coming weeks and months as the games go by. If anything, it’s difficult to read much into their current accuracy until everyone has played everyone at least once. Then we might have a better idea of where we can expect to be come next May.
Until then, it’s all about ensuring we stay well clear of the pack of teams who will battling against relegation and pushing on from there. Anything can happen after then.
