West Ham transfers show they mean business... now club must finally make London Stadium feel like home

West Ham have had a good summer so far. A new, top-level manager, Manuel Pellegrini, has arrived. He’s spent £90 million and made seven new signings. Top quality players like Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmalenko and Jack Wilshere have been recruited.

Trouble is, the Hammers have actually had three good summers in a row now.

It’s been Autumn, Winter and Spring which have been the problem. Those months when the football is played rather than just talked about. And when the varied promises offered in east London in 2016 and 2017 by a new stadium, a host of new signings and the dawn of a supposed new era for the club have been buried amid failure on the pitch and protest and rancour off it.

Looking ahead to the imminent season, you have to ask – if this doesn’t work for the Hammers what will?

This is their best opportunity yet to move beyond the troubles caused by their move to the London Stadium and to start putting down proper roots there.

As hard as it is to love, West Ham are in the new ground for good.

Now it's time for even those whose spirits sink at the mere sight of the place – this correspondent included – to bite the bullet and attempt to settle in properly.

If this manager, who is dedicated to open attacking football, and the thrilling squad now assembled under his command can click into gear, then the process of adapting to life in the Stratford bowl can finally begin in earnest.

It's been a traumatic first two seasons since the move from Upton Park, characterised vividly last March by the sight of captain Mark Noble wrestling a protester to the ground mid-match against Burnley while hordes gathered beneath the director’s box to voice their anger at the direction of the club.

Since then, most fans now agree, the much-vilified owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, have delivered much of what those unhappy fans have been demanding.

For starters, Pellegrini is a class act as a manager. No matter that many will argue that his title-winning success at Manchester City was fuelled by Abu Dhabi’s wealth, he has an impressive track record at smaller clubs like Villareal and Malaga as evidence that he might make things happen for a team of the Hammers’ stature.

There is the added bonus that the Chilean’s dignified manner will bring some much needed calm and gravity to a place where those qualities have been sadly lacking – in the boardroom and in the stands.

Secondly, West Ham’s work in the transfer market has been ambitious, exciting and carried out early, with Ryan Fredericks, Lukasz Fabianski, Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena also signed.

It's an arms race out there and soon enough, the big boys’ spending will outstrip Pellegrini’s and the clubs around the Hammers in the Premier League’s mid-range will be getting very busy, too.

But there is no denying that the London Stadium will now boast a group of players capable of delivering the uplifting brand of football those crowds of 56,000 are entitled to expect in return for the wrench of leaving the Bolyen Ground.

If it all goes well, there shouldn't be too much need for the public to hear as much as they have in the past from Sullivan and Karren Brady, either.

Their regular pronouncements and perceived interference in the recruitment strategy have grated with many fans. Now, if things work out under the new coach, then the improvements at the club will speak for themselves.

There will be no need for sound-bites. And Sullivan himself will probably enjoy a bit of peace and quiet after the bitterness of last season, too.

Of course, West Ham were in this optimistic position in the two preceding summers and things went dismally wrong all around.

In 2016, signed off life at their ancestral home in Green Street with a seventh-placed finish and the pledge from the owners that the move up the road would herald an elevation to the much-vaunted “next level.”

There was the prospect of Europa League football, too. And the arrival of a £20.5 million record signing, the striker Andre Ayew. Dimitri Payet was all set to become the new Paolo Di Canio in the fans hearts

But for most of the season, the side languished below mid-table before finishing desultory 11th. FA Cup interest ended with a 5-0 thrashing at home by Manchester City. Watford, Arsenal, City again and Liverpool all scored four or more in the new ground.

Ayew was a flop and interest in the Europa League ended pitifully in the play-off round with defeat at home by Romania’s Astra Guirgui in the home leg – the same side which had knocked out Bilic’s side the previous summer in the third qualifying round.

Payet, meanwhile, basically went on strike and enforced a move to Marseille in the January transfer window.

The summer of 2017 was marked by even more excitement in the transfer market following the arrivals of Marko Arnautovic, Javier Hernandez, Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta.

Manager Slaven Bilic lasted only until November as the team slumped into the drop zone. His replacement, David Moyes eventually secured a 13th place finish but only after months of further relegation fears.

Meanwhile, anger at the team’s performances, a perceived lack of ambition in the boardroom and over conditions at the new stadium boiled over into those demonstrations at the Burnley game, which vice-chairman Brady called “one of the most painful day’s in the club’s history.”

Perhaps things had to hit rock bottom in the new ground like that before they could start improving.

Certainly, there is hope and optimism around the club again. And it has been a fabulous long, hot summer, too.

This time, West Ham must ensure that the storms do not return. Another season like the last two and it will look like the club really has nowhere left to go.