Let’s be honest…the summer is pretty boring without our weekly dose of pain or ecstasy…depending on how our results go, but as we wait for Man City on the 10th August we are akin to rabid dogs salivating on any hint of transfer news.

Rumours circulate, players are touted and the club is ‘linked’ to him from here or them from there…but we are rarely in the know until it actually happens. Even the ITK fans who regurgitate morsels of info have been largely cut off by Pellegrini and Husillos this season as they aim to keep their lips held tight and ship risk free from sinking.

As fans we all know we need to strengthen in most positions. Our strike force needs a big shake up and depending on which players leave the club will determine how much money is available to bring in new players. In the search for this talent, we of course run the risk of being forced to sell our best talent as we have done so in so many years past. But perhaps the winds are changing and maybe we are no longer the selling club we once were.

I always considered Pellegrini to be a manager of considered opinion and stoic resolve to work behind the scenes to take us in the direction we would wish to go. With Husillos at his side, there is definitely a master plan at work and it looks likely that most targets will be coming from Europe…but will they ever arrive?

I for one would have liked to have seen more movement on players both going out and some coming in the opposite direction. Perhaps I am just being impatient and should learn to trust the manoeuvrings within the club corridors of power, but with little business being done early on we run the risk of new players, if any materialise of course, not bedding in quickly enough.

The squad will soon embark on their pre season training and then followed by friendlies in Austria and China before returning home for Fulham and then Athletic Bilbao in the Betway Cup on 3rd August…and I for one will be looking ever closer at Pellegrini’s lunges and ripostes and whether the club can produce a squad that is fit to challenge for higher places this season and to launch a worthwhile campaign in both cup competitions.

Whilst Pellegrini’s first season wasn’t a disaster, it wasn’t an emphatic success either, however there were numerous improvements too. But, year two is where I shall judge him most and what tactics he will employ against the better teams…and how he prepares to face off against the lesser teams too.

West Ham are never far from being derailed either by collectively out of form players or players who have their own agendas way ahead of the club’s fortunes. The Arnautovic saga of last season sent many a grown up to enter a tail spin as they recalled the less than admirable departure of Payet the season before…and now there are mutterings that the club might even entertain a return of the Frenchman to within our ranks…surely this devil’s mischief from the minds of the club media team who would distract our attention whilst Pellegrini makes his advances in other directions. A perfect parry for our wayward loyalties perhaps?

Whilst we teeter on the edge of disaster, we are also a club who could just as well rise up to dizzying heights…if only our injury record wasn’t so awful and we conjured up a squad that galvanised in form and with an impenetrable shield.

Quite possibly I stand alone as I anticipate the season ahead…like a moronic satanist at a bible basher convention. I always believe within my bones that we can go places and have a long awaited season to remember and of course I am mostly let down and up for ridicule by those of more sober minds.

However, I stand by what I feel…Even without further signings, our squad…when all fit and able, are capable of getting results week in and week out. Our club behind the scenes appears to be more stable than it has been in more recent years and whilst we slowly have come to terms that Upton Park is no more and the London Stadium is now our place of business, but yet to be our home…there is optimism that Pellegrini can take us further than we have been in a generation.

Perhaps the gods will look favourably upon us this season and lay misfortune at the feet of other clubs. Perhaps the pretenders who fought so well last season will recoil to their more familiar stances and our players can start off the season with a master class of defensive fortitude and counter attacking mastery against the Citizens who will no doubt be expecting more glory than any one team truly deserves.

Quite possibly this season is where we fans can finally cheer from start to end and praise the second coming of our saviour Pellegrini rather than wallow within our own predetermined misfortunes.

I cannot wait for the season to start. I have an unjustified optimism that will not warp or buckle even without sensible transfer confirmations or an injection of billions. This is going to be our year, where we have new heroes than will enter folklore and be in our hearts for all eternity.

We had the holy trinity of Moore, Peters and Hurst…Sissons, Boyce and Sealey brought us cup glories in the 60’s whilst Taylor and Brooking gave us more in the 70’s and 1980. Cottee and McAvennie took us to the glory of third in 1985/86 league season…and nearly…oh so nearly Ashton and Konchesky almost brought home the cup in 2006 against Liverpool.

Which players will lay it all down on the field of play, put club before personal ambition and become leaders, which inspire and aspire to greatness? Can you imagine it even possible? Do you dare to believe..if only for a fleeting moment? I do!