VIEW FROM THE STANDS

Last season was such an incredible adventure. From the beginning of Project Restart to today, David Moyes has transformed us from relegation battlers to European challengers. The big talking point is squad depth. We ran out of steam last season because we couldn’t afford to rest our starting XI. With Mark Noble, Ryan Fredericks and Andriy Yarmolenko all off, we need 10- plus arrivals to continue fighting on different fronts. This season will be different

because opposition teams will give us more respect and be wary of our threat going

forward. We’re more of a threat on the counter. The fans’ opinion of the

gaffer is hugely respectful. Moyes has helped the players to re- connect with fans, but now there’s some pressure to sustain this. I worry his weakness lies in recruitment. He’s brought in a number of fantastic players, though for every Bowen or Soucek there’s a Vlasic or Kral. Our key player will be

Declan Rice. A big reason we’ve enjoyed two amazing seasons – he’s really grown. Our most underrated

player is Pablo Fornals, who works tirelessly in attack and

defence. He lacks pace, but his vision and touch enable him to create space and thread passes others can’t. I’m least looking forward

to playing Brentford, our new bogey team to join Brighton. One point from four games against those two last season. The one change I’d make

would be hearing more from Daniel Kretinsky, who owns 27 per cent of West Ham and could one day take over.

We’ll finish top half. We’ve got the quality to push for Europe again, but I fear we may struggle competing on different fronts.