Something had to change at West Ham United. The club could not deliver another poor transfer market where expectations were built, only to be shattered. This summer, we have seen the club focused on signing established Premier League players. But is this the right approach? Let’s take a look…

Joe Hart

Hart is undoubtedly an upgrade on our current goalkeepers. We have seen him play in the Premier League for a number of years, making sublime saves and solidifying his role as England’s number one. Whether he still deserves this role is debatable but there is no denying that he does improve our team.

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We can’t ignore that Hart does make many mistakes and he did not impress during his time in Torino. Now although this signing does improve our team, Hart does need to reduce the errors in his game. But this is one of the smarter decisions made in recent windows.

Javier Hernandez

Goals. And more goals. This is what Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez brings to a team. Hernandez is a very good finisher and although he has been accused of going missing in some games, it is clear that he possesses the ability to find space in the opposition’s box with ease.

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Given that Andy Carroll struggles to stay fit and Diafra Sakho is seemingly out of favour, Hernandez was a great signing. Let’s not forget that both Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri only scored 1 Premier League goal between them last season. We have lacked a proven Premier League striker who can start every game and Hernandez is the man to fill that role. Hernandez does need to be provided with goalscoring chances and Manuel Lanzini will need to step up with Dimitri Payet no longer at the club.

Pablo Zabaleta

This is the signing that has excited me the least. And it is not because he is a defender. Zabaleta was one of the best right-backs in the Premier League and led City through one of their greatest periods in their history. But like Hart, his performances did drop significantly.

We did need to sign a right-back given that it was the weakest area in our defence with Slaven Bilic often rotating between Havard Nordtveit, Michail Antonio and Sam Byram. Is Zabaleta the answer to this problem? I do not believe so given his significant decline though having better options at right-back means that Antonio can stay in an attacking role.

Marko Arnautovic

With Payet leaving the club and both Robert Snodgrass and Sofiane Feghouli failing to impress, we did need another attacker alongside Lanzini and Antonio. Defences have struggled to defend Arnautovic and we have seen him score some stunning goals. He is now our club-record signing though with the current fees being paid by other clubs, we have to pay these fees if we want to compete.

It is difficult to say whether this was a good signing as of yet given Arnautovic’s difficulty to produce consistent performances though he does provide us with a different option to what we currently have in attack.