This is not the first time Slaven Bilic has arrived at Upton Park to significant fanfare and filled supporters with optimism.
In January 1996 then manager Harry Redknapp stumped up a club record £1.3 million for the Croatian international to play at the heart of his defence.
After a solid start Bilic shone at Euro ’96 playing a key role in pushing Croatia into the quarter-finals and held that form in the following season for West Ham, finishing runner-up to Julian Dicks in the fan-voted Hammer of the Year award.
Such was his loyalty and passion for the club he stayed with them until the end of the 1997 season despite being sold some weeks earlier to Everton for a huge £4.5 million, helping the club avoid relegation by just two points.
When former manager Sam Allardyce was dumped following a string of poor results and even worse visual displays, Irons fans were concerned. Not only had the club spiralled down the table but with a pending move to the new Olympic Stadium changes needed to be made that not only assured their survival, but brought attractive football back to East London.
Allardyce, who has made a career of helping sides remain just above the drop zone, needed to go.
Not because he didn’t play the so-called ‘West Ham way’ but that he had lost both the playing group and the supporter base. West Ham’s owners David Sullivan and David Gold realised that to fill a 70,000-seater stadium they needed a manager with their similarly lofty ambitions.
The mindset of being in perpetual survival mode had to change.
Before bringing in a raft of new players Gold and Sullivan realised they needed someone who could mould them into a successful squad.
Names such as Rafa Benitez and Carlo Ancelotti were floated, showing that they were after the cream of the crop. But while there was a lot of puff and bluster there was little substance to show with neither man particularly interested in rebuilding a mid-table club.
Finally an offer went out to Unai Emery, a man who had led Sevilla to Europa Cup success and seemed to match the owner’s vision. He is a young coach on the rise and keen to continue up the managerial ladder.
But herein lies the problem.
A move to West Ham would be, at best, a sideways move and success may take years. He already had a team in the Champions League and as the days passed it became clear he would not take the post.
With West Ham staring down the barrel of another sub-par appointment, interest was revived in Bilic, who has long been touted as a potential returning messiah following his exploits coaching his own national team.
Far from being slighted at being overlooked for those with longer CVs, Bilic spoke with pride about his time at the Boleyn Ground and his eagerness for the job.
West Ham have a long history of style over substance and Bilic acknowledged that while the playing style had to change so did the club mentality; the Hammers had to think big on the pitch as well as off it.
Gold and Sullivan had heard enough and his intimate knowledge of West Ham was enough for them to take a punt on a manager with no experience coaching in the Premier League.
After some early home jitters Bilic has not only moulded his squad but has them playing in his image, not dissimilar to how he set up his Croatian sides in the past.
Demanding more flair from his wide men and packing the front line with pace to go with a tight back four, West Ham have become a nightmare to host as they have time and again caught teams napping on the break.
Bilic’s much famed man management has also been at the forefront of his early success having to rotate central defenders without upsetting the balance, while others such as Angelo Ogbonna and Michail Antonio have had to bide their time with long spells on the bench. But both seem prepared to wait for their opportunity (which Bilic has promised will come). This is a wonderful sign of the harmony currently down at Upton Park.
This year was to be the farewell to Green Street with hopefully a solid performance from a team bereft of confidence under the old regime. Instead Bilic has gone beyond the normal ‘honeymoon’ phase and instilled a brand of more attractive football and a steely resolve away from home.
With a significant income boost to be delivered from the move to the Olympic Stadium, supporters can now feel that both on and off the pitch West Ham have a genuine opportunity to burst into the top six on a more full-time basis.
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