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The Premier League off-season has seen West Ham United spend over £94 million on playing talent. Only Liverpool have opened the coffers more liberally and there is apparently more on the way.
The spending spree was obviously part of the deal and attraction that lured Manuel Pellegrini to the Olympic Stadium. The Chilean begins his tenure in full knowledge that David Gold and David Sullivan have well and truly had enough of the Hammers mediocrity and were in agreement to loosen the purse strings.
The 64 year old Pellegrini arrives with a pedigree needing little explanation. Despite relatively short-term reigns at Manchester City and Real Madrid, there were some wonderful moments and achievements.
The man himself sites internal issues for the frustrations at Madrid and he left City with an astonishing win percentage and goal-scoring record. The lure of a younger man in the form of Pep Guardiola was too strong for the owners to resist and Pellegrini completed his tenure at City in June 2016.
Now he is a West Ham man; coaching a Club touted as perennial battlers and historically a ‘make up the numbers’ Premier League participant.
Relegated twice since the induction of the Premier League, the ‘Irons’ fought their way back into the top tier almost immediately on both occasions. Those seasons are perfect representations of exactly where the club has sat for the last 25 years; a fringe top flight team without the depth of stars to seriously threaten the big boys.
Years of frustration for the fans had worn thin, as the club filled the role of an honest toiler, but when Gold and Sullivan acquired their original 50 per cent controlling interest in 2010, the future looked bright. Unfortunately, little changed. The club has managed only one top ten Premier League finish (2015-16) since.
Dimitri Payet during his time for West Ham (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Thus, with the recent, stunning moves made in the transfer market, West Ham loom as a perfect discussion point when it comes to modern football, the Premier League and the sheer power of money. If West Ham United do indeed morph into something as impressive and intimidating as they were in the 1960s, two simple points could be made.
On one hand, it will confirm that money does indeed talk and Leicester City’s heroics of 2016 will always be a blip. Conversely, if the Hammers fail to impress, it will reflect the drastic need for a change of culture and thinking, above the acquisition of players
That thinking is ingrained and difficult to overcome. For years I had felt some macabre sense of pride in the struggling cockneys. There seemed something noble about the battler. Australia knows it well. With the billions spent at the top end of the Premier League, surely resisting the temptation to pursue the title backed by money alone provided some sense of integrity?
Quality academy players like Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick were poached, only to return and inflict pain on the club in opposition colours later on. The psyche of the club become a self-fulfilling prophesy, as the hard edged fans took on the role of the aggressive underdog, hell bent on derailing other teams’ charges, rather than ever building one of their own.
West Ham United were the like the clean guy at the back of the peloton attempting to compete in Le Tour without EPO.
Without a domestic league title of which to speak and just one glorious European Cup Winners Cup Trophy in 1965, the Londoners have provided much ammunition in my footballing circles over the years, so efficient at mediocrity have they become. Nobody seems to remember their three FA Cup victories.
It appears West Ham have finally adhered to an old truism; If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
With the arrivals of Felipe Anderson (Lazio), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dortmund), Jack Wilshire (Arsenal), Ryan Fredericks (Fulham), Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea) and Fabian Banbuena from Corinthians it is clear the eleven that face Liverpool on August 12 will be exciting, new and a stunning transformation.
With rumours still circling around a potential Dimitri Payet return and a big offer still on the table for Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle) the Hammers fans are queueing up, kit in hand, ready to emblazon some very new names across their shoulders.
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In a non-salary capped league, it is the nature of the beast. Is it right? Yes, well within the rules. Is it ethical? Who cares either way, I want a title before I die and there is little scope for such considerations in the meat market of the football transfer system.
Is it the best thing for the league? Probably not.
The money West Ham has spent has the potential to shift thinking considerably. Years of sooking and whinging; living in constant fear of relegation breeds a strange psyche and a clear dislike for European powerhouses such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Now the club has made a play at becoming exactly what the fans claimed to have hated and only time will tell whether the moves made are prudent and wise.
However, the idea of a star-studded West Ham United side sitting high on the domestic ladder, playing consistently in the Champions League and filling the Olympic Stadium, would be just as much of a shock to the home fans, as it would to the entire Premier League.