West Ham United are now a best-price 7/5 with bookmakers to make a top ten Premier League finish following heavy boardroom backing for new boss Manuel Pellegrini.
The Hammers have spent in excess of £85 million in transfer fees since appointing the Chilean former Manchester City coach as successor to David Moyes.
A club-record purchase of Lazio attacking midfielder and once-capped Brazil international Felipe Anderson brought the senior arrivals to seven at the London Stadium this summer. Such player recruitment, also including ex-Arsenal man Jack Wilshere and Ukraine forward Andriy Yarmolenko, is a serious statement of intent to improve on a 13th-place finish last term.
West Ham spent much of 2017-18 battling relegation but are as big as 8/1 to suffer the drop this season and yet they’re odds-on at 4/6 to stay in the bottom half for all of their spending. The market move, as the signings continue to arrive at the Hammers, has been to make the top ten for just the second time in six seasons. With their odds slashed by betting sites UK bookies, think they can achieve this goal.
There may even be loftier ambitions in the minds of key West Ham boardroom trio David Gold, David Sullivan and Karen Brady after the purchases under Pellegrini. A top-six finish, which likely brings the prospect of European football for the 2019-20 campaign with it, is a rated a 14/1 chance.
More than money needed for success
As previous Hammers managers have discovered, spending is one thing, but bringing about improvement and breaking into the upper echelons of the Premier League is another entirely.
Slaven Bilic, the predecessor to Moyes, overhauled the West Ham attack last summer with a combined £36 million outlay on Marko Arnautovic from Stoke City and the return of Mexico poacher Javier Hernandez to England from Germany. Buying these two proven Premier League performers resulted in just 19 goals between them across all competitions.
Recruitment in this summer transfer window has been about strengthening the Hammers’ defensive options, bringing in more creative types in midfield and personnel who can support the strikers. This is because Argentina attacking midfielder Manuel Lanzini suffered a serious injury on the eve of the World Cup Russia finals.
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His country suffered without him at the tournament, so West Ham hope to avoid doing likewise thanks to their successful pursuit of Felipe Anderson, whose path to an international career of his own is blocked by the likes of Neymar, plus current and past Premier League players Gabriel Jesus, Philippe Coutinho and Willian in the Brazil setup.
Wilshere, overlooked by Gareth Southgate as a young England team reached the World Cup semi-finals in Russia and recorded their best finish on the global stage since 1990, also moves to the Hammers with hopes of a recall. He will need to silence doubters who question what is a dubious fitness record at best.
Other fresh faces are Poland goalie Lukasz Fabianski, a potential new-look central defensive pairing of France youth international prospect Issa Diop and Paraguay’s Fabian Balbuena with Winston Reid out injured, and right back Ryan Fredericks from Fulham – the third such recruit in that position in as many years.
