West Ham United

West Ham's teenage sensation Reece Oxford produced a brilliantly assured performance in his Premier League debut on Sunday, neutralising Mesut Ozil and helping the Hammers on their way to a shock 2-0 win over Arsenal.

But just two years ago, at the age of 14, the midfielder was on Twitter urging Arsenal to sign the very same Germany midfielder he managed so effectively on Sunday.

Yeah boy Ozil is At Arsenal You Know it's Peak this Season Are Midfield Is too Strong, Might be Getting Di Maria To !!

— Ox (@Reeceoxford_) September 2, 2013

Apparently a keen Arsenal supporter at the time, the youngster was desperate to see then-Real Madrid team-mates Ozil and Angel Di Maria join the north London club.

Arsenal Best Get Ozil Or di Maria !

— Ox (@Reeceoxford_) September 2, 2013

Hammers fans will hope that Oxford's years in the West Ham academy have changed his allegiances, or Arsene Wenger might take an interest after the 16-year-old's impressive debut.

[Twitter]

After discussion raged throughout the summer about whether Arsenal could challenge for the Premier League title, we’ll get a first glimpse of just how capable this team is of winning the ultimate prize when they take on West Ham United in their season opener.

The Hammers have had a busy pre-season themselves, with Europa League qualifiers and plenty of new faces keeping players on their toes. They’ll fancy their chances of springing a shock and the teams have been announced for what is always a fiercely contested fixture.

Here’s the XI named by Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, per the Arsenal Twitter feed:

The teams are in! Here's how @Arsenal line up for #AFCvWHU pic.twitter.com/9GO3Vzyp8F

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 9, 2015

New Hammers boss Slaven Bilic has picked the following lineup for his first Premier League game in charge, per the West Ham Twitter feed:

WEST HAM UNITED: (4-4-2) Adrian, Tomkins, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Oxford, Noble ©, Kouyate, Payet, Zarate, Sakho #ARSWHU

— West Ham United (@WestHam) August 9, 2015

For Arsenal, the Hammers look to be perfect opposition to get the wheels in motion. According to 11v11.com, the Gunners have won their last nine Premier League games in a row against their London rivals, with West Ham’s most recent victory at the Emirates coming in 2007 thanks to a Bobby Zamora goal.

West Ham confirmed the arrival of Manuel Lanzini on a season-long loan from Al Jazira Club on Wednesday. The attacking midfielder brings a lot of promise to the Boleyn Ground.

Lanzini, a 22-year-old Argentine youth international whose moniker is "The Jewel," faces a steep uptick in the level of competition as he arrives to the Premier League. He told the club's official site that he's ready for the challenge, though.

"This is a new challenge for me and that can only help in the future. It will test my ability in one of the best leagues in the world, so I am looking forward to getting started," he said. "I am someone who always gives 100 percent. I'm an attacking player, I can change the game's tempo and I hope to give my maximum for the fans to appreciate me."

The release from the Hammers also notes that they hold the option to make the deal permanent if the new addition impresses during the loan stint.

Lanzini represents a chance worth taking for West Ham. While it's very much uncertain whether he's prepared to earn a regular first-team spot in the Premier League, he's showcased intriguing potential during stops with River Plate, Fluminense and Al Jazira Club.

He's an attack-minded midfielder who's at his best when playing in a central role. He creates scoring chances by pushing forward aggressively with pace and is also a solid distributor, which will be welcome on a club that sought depth in the middle.

His role should become more clear after the preseason. That said, at the outset, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him come off the bench when the Hammers are seeking an offensive surge. Depending on how he performs in those situations, he could move into the starting lineup as he gains more experience.

Ultimately, Lanzini is a long signing with a bit of an unknown factor, but the potential upside gave West Ham enough confidence to complete the deal.  

West Ham United have confirmed the signing of French midfielder Dimitri Payet from Marseille on a five-year deal.

The club announced the news on Friday, and although the fee is undisclosed, BBC Sport reports it is in excess of £10 million:

BREAKING: @dimpayet17 joins the Hammers on a five-year contract for an undisclosed eight-figure fee from @om_officiel #WelcomeDimitri 2/3

— West Ham United (@WestHam) June 26, 2015

The Hammers had long been rumoured as potential suitors for the 28-year-old Payet, while Marseille were angered that he wished to leave the Ligue 1 club, per Sky Sports. 

A creative attacking midfielder, Payet provided 17 assists and scored seven goals in Ligue 1 last season, per WhoScored.com, and French football writer Matt Spiro is backing him as a fine singing for the Hammers:

I'll go out on limb and say Payet will be great signing for #WHUFC. Yes he's 28, but currently playing best football & is technically superb

— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) June 24, 2015

The France international joins Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph as West Ham's newest recruits, with the Irons aiming for a successful term in 2015-16 under new boss Slaven Bilic. 

West Ham United have completed the signing of Spanish midfielder Pedro Obiang from Sampdoria.

The 23-year-old moves to Upton Park on a four-year deal from Serie A for an undisclosed fee and is the first signing under recently announced new Hammers boss Slaven Bilic.

The club confirmed the signing on Wednesday:

BREAKING: West Ham United are delighted to announce the signing of Spain U21 midfielder Pedro Obiang #PedroIsAHammer pic.twitter.com/uuCqAPgibl

— West Ham United (@WestHam) June 10, 2015

Although the Irons have not disclosed the fee paid for the defensive-minded Obiang, MailOnline's Adam Smith reported his value at £4.4 million ahead of the announcement.

Writer Tor-Kristian Karlsen reported the price was roughly £6 million, and thought the move was a savvy one for the Hammers:

Pedro Obiang for £6 million can only be good business for West Ham. Industrious, tidy (albeit unspectacular) central midfielder. Top pro too

— Tor-Kristian Karlsen (@karlsentk) June 10, 2015

Obiang expressed his pleasure at finally putting pen to paper following long-term rumours of his arrival in east London, per West Ham's website:

I’m very happy to have signed. We have been talking about this for a long time, and now I’ve finally got the chance to come here. 

I went on holiday after the season had finished, and I was looking forward to receiving that call to tell me where and when to sign for this club. 

I’m very excited to play in the Premier League. It’s a style of football that will help me to progress as a player and as a person, so it will be very good.

Obiang played a key role for Sampdoria last term, as they finished seventh in Serie A, appearing 34 times in the league and scoring three goals, per WhoScored.com.

As noted by Squawka, he looks to be a good purchase, and he will bring physicality and steel to the centre of the Hammers midfield:

If we've got any West Ham fans in, here's Pedro Obiang's stats page. Looks an astute signing - http://t.co/2x8dNQYWBb pic.twitter.com/UhxDpI7GlE

— Squawka (@Squawka) June 10, 2015

Spain has capped Obiang at U17, U19 and U21 levels.

Former West Ham United defender Slaven Bilic has been appointed as the new manager at Upton Park following the departure of Sam Allardyce at the end of the 2014-15 season.

The Croatian recently parted ways with Besiktas after two years in charge at the Turkish club and takes over at the helm for the Irons following their 12th-placed Premier League finish last season.

The news of Bilic's instalment as West Ham boss was reported on June 9 by the club's official website.

Bilic said:

I’m really glad to be back with West Ham United.

It’s in the Premier League, which is among the best in the world. It’s a big challenge and you are competing with the best and what better club to do it with than West Ham.

It is a great place to play and I felt like I was at home. It is a big privilege and a big responsibility to now be manager and I hope that I will prove it to the board, players and fans.

According to Dominic Fifield of the Guardian, 46-year-old Bilic was not the first choice of co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan and vice-chairman Karren Brady.

They were reportedly eager to bring in Marseille's Marcelo Bielsa, per Tony Banks of the Express, who also reported West Ham approached Carlo Ancelotti, David Moyes, Jurgen Klopp, Rafa Benitez and Unai Emery to fill the top job at the Boleyn Ground.

As noted by the Daily Mail's Matt Lawton, West Ham have seemingly been forced to settle for a manager they didn't originally target:

Interesting if West Ham go for Bilic after pursuing countless others. Replace a manager they never really wanted with a manager they ...

— Matt Lawton (@Lawton_Times) June 8, 2015

However, Bilic has a decent pedigree, having managed in Turkey and Russia. He also managed a strong Croatian national team, and his links with the Upton Park club as a player should make him a popular appointment on the terraces.

Former Hammer Tony Cottee has backed the appointment of his one-time team-mate at Upton Park:

Bilic was brought to east London by then-manager Harry Redknapp in 1996 and played a key role for the Hammers for 18 months before moving to Everton. 

For a manager with such undeniable pedigree and a consistent record of solidity in a profession where success is so famously fickle, Sam Allardyce must consider himself very unlucky.

What he achieved with Bolton Wanderers on a shoestring budget ranks among the very best managerial accomplishments that the Premier League has seen, but since then he has been beset by misfortune.

He lasted a matter of months at Newcastle United, falling victim to the club’s famously impatient board. He returned to Lancashire with Blackburn Rovers and looked to be building on a solid foundation having saved them from relegation before again being sacked in extremely harsh circumstances—Sir Alex Ferguson called the move “absolutely ridiculous,” per BBC Sport.

Now Allardyce’s time at West Ham United has drawn to a close. Unlike the bolt from the blue that was his sacking at Blackburn, his parting of ways with the Hammers has been on the cards for some time, fuelled by vociferous fan protests about the style of football Allardyce specialises in and a poor second half of the season.

Once again, it’s difficult not to feel sympathy for Allardyce.

He has done everything expected of him by the West Ham board, having gotten the club promoted from the Championship and then established them once again as a solid Premier League club. He has even made a concerted effort to play a brand of football more easy on the eye.

In fact, much of the pressure Allardyce has found himself under in recent weeks has ironically stemmed from how successful he was early in the season. Having dealt well in the summer transfer market, Allardyce’s charges were situated in the Champions League qualification positions at Christmas, a performance beyond the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic patrons of the Boleyn Ground.

Injuries to major players such as Diafra Sakho have taken their toll on the team’s form, and they eventually finished the season in a still-respectable 12th position. However, West Ham’s red-hot start to the campaign raised expectations to unrealistic levels, and despite his attempts to acquiesce to the requests for more aesthetically pleasing football, Allardyce was the one to shoulder the burden.

The Hammers faithful would do well to look at how Allardyce’s former clubs have fared since his departure.

Newcastle went through three managers—Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Alan Shearer—in the one-and-a-half seasons after Allardyce left before being relegated, having been mainstays in the Premier League since 1993, per the Guardian. Blackburn suffered a similar fate, being relegated in their first full season after removing Allardyce.

Even Bolton—whom Allardyce left rather than being sacked by—struggled to replicate the success he had left a blueprint for and eventually succumbed to relegation in 2012.

It’s important to point out this isn’t a case of Big Sam’s presence destabilising clubs or wanton financial mismanagement—it’s one of him simply being a very good manager and clubs not realising what they had until it’s gone.

With West Ham’s move to the Olympic Stadium at the start of the 2016/17 season representing a significant financial commitment—£15 million for stadium conversion work, £2.5 million per year for rent as well as a share of catering income, per the Guardian—securing their Premier League status is even more imperative for the Hammers than most clubs.

With all of this in mind, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the club’s decision to not renew Allardyce’s contract was a matter of last resort, with his performance levels so abhorrently bad that owners David Gold and David Sullivan simply had to act.

That simply hasn’t been the case. Instead, Allardyce’s removal is largely a result of his refusal to completely abandon pragmatism in the name of pursuing the telling ambiguity of the “West Ham way.”

While the club’s fans are perfectly entitled to want West Ham to be run in a certain manner, using this unknowable, indefinable criteria as a barometer of a manager’s abilities is unfair and simply unworkable in the modern game.

Wanting winning football, played in an attractive, passing manner by a team consisting of youth academy graduates is by no means unique to West Ham fans, but the dismissal of a manager at the behest of fans who fail to see the inherent impracticalities of such a demand in the modern game is reckless to say the least.

Allardyce’s wages were a stick used to beat him with frequently, but the £3 million he earned annually, per Metro, was a small price to pay for Premier League safety. Beyond that, the idea that he is merely a Premier League survival gun for hire is inherently wrong. He proved repeatedly at Bolton his ability to take a team to the venerated “next level” but has simply been denied the opportunity to repeat his accomplishments since.

Perhaps the club truly believe that another coach could get them there faster—they do have the financial base to make a consistent challenge for the Europa League positions.

However, with so much at stake with the move to the Olympic Stadium and the failure of Big Sam’s former clubs to cash in on the steady progress they were making in an attempt to expedite the process could prove immensely short-sighted.

Real Sociedad manager David Moyes is reportedly being lined up for a Premier League return after it emerged West Ham United are in the hunt to appoint the Scot at their helm this summer.

It's been predicted for some time now that Sam Allardyce's tenure at Upton Park is coming to an end, with The Telegraph's Matt Law writing that Moyes is now the east Londoners' "number one target" to replace him:   

It is understood that West Ham have now made a more direct approach to Moyes, with the Scotsman being told he is first choice to lead the club into the Olympic Stadium.

Moyes headed for the pastures of La Liga after receiving his marching orders as Manchester United chief in April 2014 and, as Samuel Marsden writes for the Mirror, is "bouncing back well in Spain."

However, Moyes is only six months into an 18-month deal with Basque outfit Real Sociedad, and so some negotiation would be required to execute his release from La Liga.

The former Everton and United tactician may be open to the idea of a return to the English top flight, having ended his tenure at Old Trafford with such bitter disappointment.

Wanting to prove his critics wrong, Moyes' pressure would certainly be less if he were to make the move to West Ham, with Allardyce's days at the club seemingly drawing to a close.

For those teams not involved in the battles for position and status at the top and bottom of the Premier League, as the season winds to its conclusion attention inevitably starts to turn towards the next campaign.

For some, the security afforded by a mid-table position is achievement enough, with the focus being on replicating that performance—or, more accurately, continuing to avoid the dreaded relegation battle—next term. For others it offers a brief period to evaluate, to consider what is now required to make that next step up—the one Southampton have made, for example, in challenging the more established clubs for those European qualification spots.

For a period this season it looked like West Ham United had also made that sizeable leap, forcing their way into the Champions League conversation as the season eased into 2015. Results since then have waned, unfortunately, and it should have been no real surprise to anyone when Sam Allardyce confirmed on Friday that he remains unsure whether he will still be West Ham’s manager next season.

Allardyce’s contract is up in the summer, as it has been since speculation about his future first started many weeks ago, and it seems the Hammers board are still considering their options—with plenty of rumours of potential replacements making their way into the press during the week, including a report from the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law that David Moyes and Rafa Benitez are in the running for the job.

"We are already planning for next season,” Allardyce told reporters on Friday when quizzed about the speculation:

We sat down yesterday and planned when we are coming back, where we are going to go and who we are going to play.

I don’t know whether I will be here—but when you are contracted to a football club you do the job you are paid to do.

After 10 victories in their first 22 games, West Ham have won just once in their last nine, scoring just six times. pic.twitter.com/ZnNZpn1nMU

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 10, 2015

At the turn of the year the club were targeting European qualification, possibly in the Champions League, but a severe downturn in results since means it is not beyond the realms of the possibility that they could ultimately finish below Stoke City and Crystal Palace in the table, quite possibly in the bottom half.

At the start of the season that might have been acceptable, but after the heights of the early part of the campaign it now feels like a crushing disappointment.

"The target we set in January is probably not achievable now,” Allardyce acknowledged while defending his side to the media:

The performances have been right up there and we have been creating chances.

But we haven’t been converting them like we were earlier in the season.

We are disappointed because we all built the expectation so high by getting into the top four.

I didn’t envisage us to maintain that and stay in the top four, but I thought we would have picked up more points than we have. The entertainment level and performances have been right up there.

But when you don’t win you get still get the criticism levelled at you.

This is not the first time Allardyce has come to the end of the season facing uncertainty about his future; indeed, he was in an almost identical situation 12 months ago. On that occasion it was West Ham’s atrocious league form that was the cause of concern (the club barely avoiding relegation), with Allardyce ultimately retained on the understanding that he would turn the team into a more attacking, attractive footballing side.

That he managed to do (earning a great deal of credit in the process), at least until the engine started spluttering in the second half of the season.

Now West Ham, a club with huge ambitions for their future, face a quandary: Is Allardyce the man to take them to that next level, or is it now a timely moment to change direction?

“Everybody has got short memories,” Allardyce suggested. “It is my job to remind everybody how well we’ve played.”

Breaking news on SSN as Big Sam says he doesn't know if he'll be at West Ham next season. That's weird, cos everyone else knows he won't be.

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) April 10, 2015

That is not his job, though; his job is to get results on the pitch. A manager’s job security may depend to a large extent on recent results, but ultimately his continuing employment hinges on where his employers believe he can take the club next.

West Ham are looking to next season, and the season after that—when they move into the Olympic Stadium and their horizons expand exponentially.

The club are looking for a manager to turn West Ham into a top-six side, and perhaps believe that one of the names mentioned in the press—Benitez, Moyes, Slaven Bilic—has the qualities required. Considering their hesitations over retaining Allardyce last season, you sense perhaps that the hierarchy has never been convinced he is the right fit for them.

Perhaps, too, Allardyce is paying the price of perception, the lingering belief that he is a manager of an older era; a tracksuit manager in an age when the most successful clubs have managers with the aura of city workers.

Perceived as more motivator than tactician, he certainly seems to be one of a dying breed in the English game, at least at the highest levels. Tony Pulis has carved out a niche for himself as a survival specialist (“Facing relegation? Call Tony!”), but beyond that the recent trend has been to move towards a different type of manager—or “head coach”—for the bigger roles. For managers like Allardyce or Redknapp, following the Pulis model (taking on a club in trouble and pulling them up by their bootstraps) might be the only route to go.

Redknapp, dismissed by QPR earlier this season, admitted to Sky Sports this week that he would love to return to West Ham but seemed to acknowledge that the chances of that were remote. Big clubs, and clubs with big ambitions, are chasing different candidates now.

"I wouldn’t want to do anything until next season, and it would depend if anything interesting comes up," Redknapp added. "I’d like to go somewhere where I’ve got half a chance of doing something.

“If it wasn’t in the Premier League, I’d want to go to a club that could get promoted."

"People were against me at #QPR"

Harry Redknapp lifts the lid on his Loftus Rd departure http://t.co/PkwVPo11h1 pic.twitter.com/HymaZLwUXq

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) April 10, 2015

Since Redknapp was released by Spurs and Manchester United called time on the David Moyes experiment, managers of the biggest clubs have invariably shared the same qualities: tactically well-regarded, cultured, happy working within a management structure—and, as often as not, foreign.

That is now being reflected lower down the table, too. If newspaper reports are to be believed, QPR chased the likes of Rafa Benitez and Paul Clement when they parted ways with Redknapp, two very different types of coaches. They eventually settled on Chris Ramsey, a coach who used to help set questions for the Football Association coaching licence exams. He literally wrote the textbook on tactics.

Ramsey fits a new profile of English coaches: one the likes of Alan Irvine and John Carver, who have moved into management after long, often well-regarded careers as the second or third in command. Some of them have gotten jobs through convenience, others as boards look for a coach who will accept more training ground responsibility and less transfer market influence.

Yet their track record remains suspect—Irvine was a failure, while the jury is out on both Carver and Ramsey—suggesting the likes of Allardyce should not be discarded, or discounted, so quickly.

Nevertheless, if West Ham do go in a different direction—and at this moment it would seem likely they will if they can snare the right candidate—Allardyce will surely not have to wait long to receive an offer to come back into management.

It just won’t be at a club of similar or higher standing. Allardyce is perhaps set to discover that, regardless of his achievements, his face just does not quite fit anymore.