As we approach July, many West Ham fans on social media have become increasingly frustrated with their sides lack of activity in the transfer market so far- with the only arrival to date being the capture of Pablo Zabaleta from Manchester City.

Michail Antonio may have signed a new contract, with Manuel Lanzini set to follow suit, but the Hammers faithful are aware significant upgrades to their squad needs to be made and the lack of movement thus far from Slaven Bilic’s side is proving to be frustrating.

The Hammers have been linked with a range of top-class players, including the likes of Joe Hart, Kelechi Iheanacho and Olivier Giroud, but progress towards significant deals seems to be slow. However, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

At this stage last summer, the Hammers had headed into the transfer window with all guns blazing and secured Havard Nordtveit and Sofiane Feghouli, neither of whom proved to be successes in East London and were instead the first of numerous disappointing recruits.

West Ham rushed into deals last summer and ended up paying the price for it, which is way patience this summer is key to success as the Hammers cannot afford to make the mistakes they did 12 months previously.

The Hammers’ reported top-targets, including Giroud, are only likely to move once substantial replacements for them have been signed by their current clubs- which means Bilic could be forced to wait weeks until a deal is possible.

However, Bilic needs to keep his lure angling in the market but must equally line-up potential alternatives, using his time wisely to come up with a list of plenty of players that would be suitable for a move to West Ham- before landing the faces he needs.

West Ham also need to avoid doing what they did last summer, where an abundance of new faces struggled to set into life at the London Stadium, and the best course of action for the Hammers in the market is to be patient and see who becomes available.

In a few weeks time, the situation surrounding the likes of Giroud, Iheanacho and Michy Batshuayi may have changed significantly, which could then play into the hands of interested clubs like West Ham- and raising interest early may put Bilic at the front of the queue.

This situation is the same for any area of the squad that West Ham may look to strengthen and there’s a strong history of clubs benefitting from patience and landing top-signings after selling sides secured new faces- with Arsenal’s captures of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez previously springing to mind.

Whilst it’s unlikely West Ham can secure a signing of that duo’s calibre, it’s set to be a long window and West Ham don’t need to rush into things.