We Are West Ham Podcast host William Pugh believes West Ham should be targetting a top-eight finish in the Premier League this season.
Having finished sixth last term, securing a place in the Europa League group stages for the first-ever time, there is a lot of excitement surrounding what’s to come over the coming campaign.
That has, though, been diluted somewhat by a lack of transfer activity this summer, which has seen just Alphonse Areola arrive on loan with just a few weeks of the transfer window remaining.
Given the success of 2020/2021, fans were hopeful that the club would invest in reinforcements in order to help build for the future and to ensure challenging for European places were far more common than it has been up to now.
But that hasn’t happened and, speaking on this week’s episode of the We Are West Ham Podcast, Will Pugh explained that without any real investment in the squad, there can only be one direction in which blame can be directed if we fail to compete in 2021/2022.
Pugh said: “I think we should be expecting it from the club. I think top eight is a reasonable target after coming sixth.
“The idea that you’re happy to drop four places just because you’ve got a minimum of six extra games, what should be happening is that we should be improving our squad in order that it can absorb those extra games and maintain, there or thereabouts, the same levels that got us there last season. That’s what we should be doing.
“If we go into the start of the season with the squad numbers we’ve got now, maybe one or two extra bodies, and we don’t end up finishing in the top eight again, none of my ire will be aimed at David Moyes or the players, unless his tactics go completely wrong or players start not putting a shift in.
“But if Moyes and the players do the same as they did last season and that only gets us 10th because of the extra burden of games, there’s only one direction the finger of blame can be pointed in.
“I think, as a club and fans, we should be expecting to finish 8th.”
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West Ham kick off the new campaign with a trip to St. James’ Park to face Newcastle United this weekend and with only one summer signing through the door so far, it’s practically the same squad from last season being tasked with putting in another heroic campaign in east London.
