The Guardian’s Barry Glendenning has predicted that West Ham United will be relegated from the Premier League next season.
This term, David Moyes’ Hammers finished the season in 16th position, five points above the drop zone (per BBC).
To steer themselves away from the bottom three, Moyes’ side went unbeaten in the final four games of the season as they won twice and drew twice (per BBC).
However, in Monday’s episode of The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, Glendenning aired his opinion that the Irons could drop to the Championship next season when discussing who he felt would go down.
He said: “Whoever wins the play-off final [will be relegated] because they’re going to have very little time to get their ducks in a row before the season starts again.
“I don’t know, West Ham [as well] probably because they’ve shown enough promise in the closing stages of this season to suggest they will be once again diabolically bad next season.
“It’s very difficult to say because teams will get off to bad starts, managers will get sacked and replaced.
“You know, I think [Aston] Villa were pretty lucky to stay up this season and they may well go as well but I’m not going to write anyone off before the season starts.”
TIF Thoughts…
Seemingly, despite the journalist suggesting that he will not write anyone off for next season yet, it seems that he has the Irons’ card marked for relegation.
Do you think West Ham will be in danger of relegation next season?
No, Moyes knows what he's doing
Yes, I think there's a chance we will
However, while it is difficult to make predictions before the transfer window has concluded, since Moyes returned to the London Stadium he has delivered a points-per-game total of 1.10 (per Transfermarkt).
Should the Scot replicate the same form over a 38-game season then the Irons would finish on 42 points, which would have been three more points than the Hammers picked up this season.
So, perhaps the journalist is being a little harsh by believing that West Ham could be relegated next season.