Manager Sam Allardyce recently spoke about West Ham’s future and is already planning for next season, despite his future being in jeopardy.
While still able to attain a top half finish this season, David Gold and David Sullivan will reflect on what might have been this season with the team being in third place at Christmas.
“We’d hope we’d be as successful next year, but it’s going to be a major task to try and be that successful.
“Certainly three or four quality players on top of this squad will make all the difference. And hopefully the players who are here now will be better next year than they are this.”
West Ham hope to cut ties with a number of squad players in the summer, including the likes of Carlton Cole, Guy Demel and Kevin Nolan, and replace them with some quality to help them push for a European place in 2015/16.
However, he acknowledges the fact that West Ham do not have the spending power of some of the top clubs in the country.
“At the moment, there’s a level we can reach, but it will be very difficult to go beyond that based on the spending power of the big guys now.
“That is probably a frustration as a manager. You can beat the big guys: we drew with Manchester United [thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser], we beat Liverpool, we beat Manchester City. But not to be able to beat them on a regular basis is one of the frustrations for me.”
Allardyce believes that his current West Ham squad is one of the best he has assembled in his 24 years as a manager, but falls just short of the Bolton side he led to two top seven finishes between 2004 and 2007.
“With this year being so successful – it’s never happened to me before, so many players being instantly successful on the field, which has given us a very good season up to now – they probably lie second behind the Bolton squad I assembled,
“The difference between that squad and this one is that these lads are younger, they have a lot more potential to grow and get better. In the Bolton days, it was more a well-established, high-profile player that we brought to the club.
“But this group of players is younger, more capable of sustaining success for a long period of time, and has not reached its potential yet.
“So, as good as we are now, Carl Jenkinson [at 23 years old] – but he’s only on loan, so we may not secure him – Aaron Cresswell, Cheikhou Kouyate, Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia [all of whom are 25] all have the capability of getting better and better over the next three or four years.”
The way Allardyce speaks about West Ham going forward is in a light where he envisages he own return to the team for next season, despite his contract expiring at the end of the season. Although Allardyce has helped stabilise the club over the last four years, there’s an overwhelming feeling that he’s taken the club as far as he can, and it’s time for the club to take the next step, under a new manager.
