Football News: Olympic Stadium Requires West Ham To Add Quality

Image from: clicanoo.re

This summer there seems to be a buzz around West Ham United, the East London club has a real feel of excitement surrounding it right now. Partially due to the removal of Sam Allardyce, who really was dragging down the mood around the club.

Partially it is the arrival of cult fan favourite Slaven Bilic as new manager and the anticipation regarding the new players that are going to arrive and the style of play he will bring. Most of all though it seems to stem from the way the club seem to be moving forward, with the Olympic Stadium on the horizon to provide the finance for the Hammers to become a major power in the Premier League.

It is all a far cry from my memories of West Ham as a youngster, when the old guy down the road, who was from London, would always be so proud that they played good football but were rubbish. If he was around today, he would have been enjoying the possibility of good football and a good team, though he might not have been so keen on not having anything to moan about!

Now the task is to take the Irons to the next level, regular European football, which is the most difficult step of all. If I was so inclined, I could probably tie it in to the 'law of diminishing returns' but it is probably more a case of diminishing money.

To attract the next level in proven quality requires more money than the other teams also trying to attract them, the higher the quality, the more money the other teams tend to have. So what usually happens, unless your owner is an oil rich billionaire, is that clubs have to take a chance on players that are not proven quality.

West Ham are in that position now where they are having to try and mix a couple of proven quality purchases with a squad of potential quality around them, to stretch the budget out. Proven quality like Dimitri Payet will be added to with potential quality that no one has taken a chance on, such as Enner Valencia and young players that have potential, such as Aaron Cresswell.

It becomes more difficult to continue to pick up the potential players over time, as each season the new players have to be better than the ones already there or the club stop moving forward. Each little step becomes progressively harder, until eventually a financial wall is reached, or worse, the signings potential is not realised and the club falls away.

There are only so many Monchis around in football, those that can continue to find bargain signings that turn into stars, year after year. Have West Ham got one at their disposal? Only time will tell, but so far they have made such progress that it is easy to forget that they have only recently returned to the Premier League.

Written by Tris Burke June 26 2015 17:24:34