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It was a summer of upheaval at West Ham during the break before this season as David Moyes was replaced by former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini and a wave of new players were brought in.
Moyes had managed to get the squad he inherited from Slaven Bilic up to a 13th place finish last season, but Pellegrini came in and was given over £90m, which he duly spent on securing nine new signings for the Hammers.
It was never going to be easy to get an almost completely new team to gel together quickly, but the Chilean boss would have hoped to have had a better start than losing their first four games on the bounce.
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In the 3-1 win over Everton last weekend though things looked like they might be starting to come together for the East London side. One of the new boys Andriy Yarmolenko netted twice and the big money signing Felipe Anderson finally started to show the quality that made him worth a club-record £36m to West Ham.
However, there was one notable admission from the starting XI who came on with 20 minutes left at Goodison Park. Carlos Sanchez, the former Aston Villa centre-mid, was perhaps the worst signing of the summer, not just at West Ham but in the Premier League as a whole.
With the money flying around and the free-movement of mercenary players between clubs in England’s top division it is some feat to be the worst signing of a summer window. Every club apart from Tottenham made at least one addition this summer, but Sanchez to West Ham was certainly the most surprising.
The 32-year-old is a defensive midfielder who, while at Villa, needed way too much time on the ball and seemed incapable of passing the ball to a teammate. It’s nice to know then that things haven’t changed for the Colombian since he left for Fiorentina, initially on loan, in the summer of 2016.
It could have been slightly more understandable if the Colombian international arrived on a free transfer to add squad depth, but West Ham paid actual money for him and Pellegrini started him in the losses at Arsenal and at home to newly-promoted Wolves.
Sanchez has that infuriating trait of putting every pass just slightly behind the man on the move and as such can single-handedly slow the tempo of an attack to walking pace.
Add this to the fact that, while he is playing for the Hammers, he is keeping 19-year-old talent Declan Rice out of the team and it starts to become even more questionable.
Rice is a centre-back turned defensive midfielder and he proved just how good he can be when given the chance to start against Everton and protected his back four admirably.
The youngster also kept possession and ensured things ticked along when the Hammers had the ball, whereas Sanchez seems to only be effective without the ball.
West Ham face a tough test at home to Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea this weekend and if they are to continue moving up the table Pellegrini must start Rice in midfield ahead of the new man Sanchez again.
West Ham fans, who do you think was your best and worst signing of the summer? Have your say by voting in our poll below.
