CAN THE HAMMERS HANDLE A FULL EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN?

In the past 10 campaigns, 31 English clubs have qualified for the Europa League via the league – and only nine have improved their final position the following year. Of the non- Super League types, only Southampton and West Ham have managed it, the latter through cunningly getting knocked out before the kids were even back at school.

That West Ham likely won’t add to that number this year, however, says more about the impossibly successful nature of their 2020- 21 season and less about how they’re likely to fare this time. The squad is surely too thin to cope with both European football and the annual Hammers injury crisis, but this was also true last term and they essentially ended up missing out on the Champions League because they couldn’t beat Newcastle. And they say football clubs have lost touch with their past.

With manager David Moyes fully rehabilitated and deservedly rewarded with a three- year contract, we will soon see if he has gained any political real estate internally. Chairman David Sullivan still likes to exert control over transfers, and has been so successful that he has only once purchased a player and sold him for a profit of greater than £ 10 million. Dimitri Payet was so impressed with the club’s direction of travel in January 2017 that he went on strike.

Moyes has managed to revitalise things, installing professionalism and playing his part in the best value top flight signing of the season – £ 5.4m full- back Vladimir Coufal – along with the ludicrously effective loan of Jesse Lingard from Manchester United. More astute signings will be needed for the Hammers to cope with their increased workload, while the club still recovers from the pandemic/ wild extravagances of Manuel Pellegrini’s stint in charge.

Such squad management will undoubtedly be key to the forthcoming campaign, and Moyes’ battle for control with Sullivan will be his most vital victory of the season if he prevails.

The punishing Thursday- Sunday merry- go- round is designed to ensure that upstarts such as West Ham don’t go upsetting the established order and doing something silly like reaching the Champions League. Especially post- Super League.

However, a Europa League run would be a lovely, surprising consolation prize, and the Irons will gladly accept a lower- placed league finish in exchange for some Air Miles and famous foreign triumphs.