West Ham are heading into the summer window with as much uncertainty as they had moving into their new Stratford home at the start of this season, with the future of manager Slaven Bilic up in the air after a mixed first season at the London Season.

The Hammers endured problems on the pitch and in the stands in the first half of the season before inconsistency, injury and the loss of star playmaker Dimitri Payet hampered their recovery in the New Year.

Bilic’s side, who have been knocking on the door of the top seven for the past few seasons, currently sit 14th with just six games left to play.

The rather blatant involvement of the board in transfer dealings last summer got the club off to a poor start, with Bilic not able to land his ideal targets ahead of the season. Their involvement was tempered somewhat in the January market, with Bilic taking more control over the ins and outs.

It was the Croatian’s decision to sell Payet, and he made a point of adding experienced Premier League talent, with the signings of Jose Fonte from Southampton and Robert Snodgrass from Hull City.

However, the main sticking point for the Hammers this term has been their poor injury record. Of course, some setbacks are unavoidable and some players are, unfortunately, highly injury prone. However, when key players such as Michail Antonio are in the form of their life but cannot get  a run of games due to persisting injury problems, something is up.

No more is this a problem than at right-back. Fans at the London Stadium have been begging for improvement in this area for years, all the while with Sam Byram milling about the squad somewhere or other.

Since arriving from Leeds United, however, he is yet to have a real run in the side, there was injury and suspension carried over from his time with the Championship club, but since then niggling injuries have come and gone.

His performance against Swansea on Saturday was arguably his finest in claret and blue, but he is now a doubt for the clash with Sunderland due to another injury problem.

As mentioned, injuries are impossible to plan for but they can be prevented. There are examples in the Premier League this season. At Bournemouth, the loan of Jack Wilshere on Deadline Day at the start of the season shocked many, what is perhaps more surprising is that he has, so far, gone a whole season without a serious injury lay-off.

The work put in by Eddie Howe and his side to manage the workload of the England international on and off the pitch all season has been outstanding and has given them a fine asset all year.

This is not to say that no work goes into fitness at West Ham, of course it does, but it is clear looking at their injury record in recent years that there is more to be done, more to be learnt.

Before looking for quick fixes in the transfer market this summer, the Hammers must look at their own actions and they could have one hell of a season with largely the same squad next term.