In the end, the 2023/24 campaign was a bit of a damp squib for West Ham United, and coming so soon after the highs of the previous season, it was a real disappointment.
The East Londoners have often promised so much but almost always failed to hit the heights.
David Moyes bucked that trend during his tenure, culminating in the epic Europa Conference League title win in 2022/23.
The writing was on the wall for the Scot once his side were hammered 6-0 at home by Arsenal, and the Irons never really recovered after that home loss.
West Ham will be sold within three years
Julen Lopetegui was brought into the club, and in a move that’s significantly different from previous incumbents in his position, he will only be head coach rather than manager.
From now on, technical director, Tim Steidten, will take charge of transfers in a much more continental way of working, something that former super agent, Jon Smith, believes could be the pre-cursor to a sale of the club.
“West Ham, as was over the last couple of years, have got away with their way of working because they didn’t have an obvious striker but they did have a decent coach,” he said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Now it looks as if things will work slightly differently at the club with Tim Steidten driving transfers, and I think it’s a path that they have to tread to become a modern club.
“I’ve grown up with a lot of the people running our game and have had good relationships with most of them, and I’m fond of David Sullivan who has been very kind to me.
“I’ve watched him operate and he’s bloody good at what he does – but he’s in his 70s. He’s not ill at all, but he’s had medical issues and I just feel that he’s possibly setting the club up for the future.
“When you look around the corner, the David Gold shareholding that’s for sale… the price has gone up and up and up, and the obvious taker was originally Daniel Kretinsky but he’s gone and bought the Post Office now, so he’s obviously not going to buy West Ham at the same time.
“He’s still a major shareholder, however, so put all those computations together, and you get a club that needs to set itself up for a potential sale in the coming 36 months.
“So for me, the new way of working is an obvious step for West Ham to take. It’s modern, it’s cool, it’s doing the things that the likes of Man United are going to have to do in future and I think it’s a bold move, but a necessary one.
“I think there’s a real chance that West Ham will be sold in the next 36 months but it does depend, by the way, on who comes in and takes the Gold shareholding.
“There’s some big players in that mix, and I think when you see the outcome of that, whoever comes in may be the prelude to what happens next.”
Given the template at the club in terms of the reach it has amongst supporters, there’s no reason why, with the right investment, the club can’t, finally, start to regularly populate the upper echelons of the Premier League and be in the Champions League each season.
Though they have one of the most iconic grounds in the country, it’s clear that the London Stadium wasn’t built to hold football matches, so any prospective buyer might also be looking to relocate the club once more.
David Sullivan is likely to make a pretty penny from any sale, before driving off into the sunset too.