Premier League 2018-19: Are West Ham United treading a dangerous path?

One of the most interesting bits about football is its unpredictability. The general view of fans and pundits alike is that when things don't go to plan, a team has to delve into the market for new faces to reinvigorate the squad. That can work as we've seen before, but at the same time, it can seriously backfire and West Ham United are no exception.

West Ham are a hugely ambitious club and that can be seen from their move from their traditional stadium, Upton Park to a much larger, more glamorous Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which was later Christened the London Stadium. Sensing an opportunity that they deemed too good to miss, the West Ham owners made a successful bid and made the London Stadium their new home two seasons ago.

Aerial view of West Ham's London Stadium

From a business perspective, moving from Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium made sense. Upton Park had a capacity of 35,000, while their new home is a 57,000 seater stadium, and they seek to increase its capacity to 66,000. This would serve to increase their revenue significantly and enable the Hammers to move toe to toe with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs themselves are currently increasing the capacity of their White Hart Lane into a 64,000 capacity stadium.

West Ham's new home would not be befitting if they didn't invest in player purchases and a manager of deserving calibre. Indeed Chilean Manuel Pellegrini was brought in to succeed David Moyes who had saved them from the real threat of relegation they faced last season. Pellegrini was charged with spearheading the club's revolution as they look to turn themselves into an elite club. The former Manchester City manager wasted no time in making his mark at his new club.

He persuaded Arsenal fan favorite, Jack Wilshere, whose contract had expired at the Emirates, to join the club. Former Arsenal and Swansea goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski, who was extremely impressive despite Swansea's poor campaign that resulted in relegation for the Welsh side, arrived.

Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson was signed to become the club's most expensive ever signing. Ukraine international, Andriy Yarmolenko also arrived from German outfit Borussia Dortmund. Defenders Issa Diop, Fabian Balbuena, and free agent Ryan Fredericks were also welcomed through the front door.

Player recruitment continued with Portuguese youngster Xande Silva from Vitoria Guimaraes, and according to Sky Sports, a West Ham entourage is in Portugal to conclude deals for Porto's Algerian winger Yacine Brahimi, Mali forward Moussa Marega and Portugal U20 international Joao Felix. If those deals are concluded, they will bring the total of new arrivals to 11.

That is extremely exciting for the West Ham faithful as the Hammers will boast of having players of great quality, and with the mercurial Chilean at the helm, the West Ham fans have good reason for optimism. On the other hand though, the same spendthrift policy could easily turn into a boomerang.

As Arsene Wenger regularly stated, if a club signs more than 5 players, it disorganizes team chemistry. This could be very problem Manuel Pellegrini may face at West Ham. It is going to be very hard for him to integrate all those players into his team with the majority of them being sure starters. There's enough evidence to suggest this could actually happen.

Last season, Everton went all guns blazing to procure new players both in the summer and the January windows. Everton signed a total of 12 players under Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce, with the former overseeing the arrival of 9 of those. Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Davy Klaasen, Sandro Ramirez, Wayne Rooney, Joshua Bowler, Cuco Martina, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Henry Onyekuru, Cenk Tosun, Theo Walcott and Elaquim Mangala all arrived in the summer and winter transfer windows.

Ronald Koeman cut a frustrated figure at Everton

The Dutchman had a disastrous campaign that saw him sacked midway through the season and Big Sam was appointed to replace him. Despite not appealing to the Toffees supporters due to his pragmatic and/or 'negative' football, he was able to steer them to safety, finishing a respectable 8th in the table after finding them languishing in the relegation zone. The undeniable conclusion here is that Everton's over ambitiousness in the market was the reason for their bad results last season.

When Spurs sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid in 2013, they went on a spending spree that saw them sign up to 7 players. Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela were all signed by the then manager, Andre Villas-Boas. Their performances were extremely shambolic. They were knocked out of the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League in the 3rd, 5th and round of 16 respectively. Villas-Boas was sacked in December and was replaced by Tim Sherwood, who led them to finish 6th in the table that season.

West Ham should be applauded for their efforts establish the club among the big guns in the Premier League, but they should as well be careful to avoid treading the same paths trodden by Everton and Spurs.