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David Moyes has departed and the race is on to appoint a new manager at West Ham by the middle of next week on a self-imposed deadline by David Sullivan.

Manuel Pellegrini is the favourite to cross the finishing post and take the job though he is closely followed by Rafa Benitez and Unai Emery. Pellegrini and his representatives have been in touch with the Hammers and the Chilean is expect to jet into the capital this week.

There is plenty of business to attend to this summer, especially now the transfer window is already open ahead f the 2018/19 campaign. Without a manager in place, it's pretty tough to identify any players to bring in and the squad needs an overhaul afte the struggle of 2017/18 at the London Stadium.

The manager is obviously the priority, with football.london understanding the new man will be in place by next Wednesday (May 23) but how would West Ham fans like to see things go?

We asked Hammers supporters what they'd like to see from th summer transfer window, as well as what they think is likely to happen with regards to the managerial appointment and while Pellegrini is the favourite with bookies, he's not among the fans.

What should be the first priority for the next West Ham manager?

This question was pretty conclusive as nearly half of the 275 respondents said that the defence needs working on. That defence shipped the joint-worst in the Premier League last season along with Stoke City. We know David Moyes wanted to sign at least two centre halves this window if he remained in the job and no doubt the new manager will want to do the same.

The emergence of Declan Rice should see him stick around and Angelo Ogbonna had a very strong second half of the season but will the new manager see that pairing as the way forward? We'll have to wait and see.

What is the minimum expectation for the new manager in their first season?

Not exactly a tough one to work out, the Hammers fans just want stability and a top-half finish will do just fine. Moyes steered the club to 13th this season in a very tight division so if it's the same style of league again next year then a top-half ending is more than achievable if the squad is strengthened.

Interestingly, 22.5% of respondents said the "minimum" expectation was to challenge for a European place, something the team has been miles off for the last two campaigns having qualified for the Europa League in 2015/16. Talk about putting the new manager under pressure.

Which position needs the most attention this summer?

Despite the majority of the answers for question one being sort the defence out, when asked what position needed the most attention this summer, more than half said that it was defensive midfield so maybe it's more a case of protecting the defence, rather than sorting the defence out really? That's what we're deducing...

What that means for Pedro Obiang - the only recognised defensive midfielder on the books - who knows. The Hammers have been linked with Leander Dendoncker and William Carvalho over the last couple of transfer windows to strengthen in that area.

Which players need to be moved on this summer?

(Image: LINDSEY PARNABY/AFP/Getty Images)

Poor Andy Carroll, it seems the Hammers fans who answered our survey don't want him at the club anymore. Cheikhou Kouyate accrued the second most number of votes, while Aaron Cresswell got a few mentions as well.

Even poor Jordan Hugill got two votes as well, you ruthless lot.

What do West Ham need most from their next manager?

This one was much less definitive than some of the answers we had in this survey.

There was a fairly even split between the Hammers fans wanting the manager to be a "master tactician" if there is such a thing, a man-manager and motivator or a ruthless winner.

You look at some of the names linked an each of them have that trait - Rafa Benitez the man manager, Unai Emery the ruthless winner and Pellegrini the master tactician. Seemingly we will only get one of those three traits but which one will it be? We'll have to wait and see.

Of the names linked to the job, who do you want to take over most?

(Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Well, the answer to this was quite surprising - Unai Emery won the vote with 29/1% ahead of Paulo Fonseca with 14.5% and Manuel Pellegrini with 8%.

The rest were split between the likes of Rafa Benitez, Sean Dyche and Marco Silva.

Fans were asked to give their reasons for picking their preferred candidate, with most of the responses for Emery surrounding the fact he's won trophies at Sevilla and PSG.

Also, if you're the person that went for "other" and said give it to Danny Dyer....thank you.

And finally...on a scale of 0-5 how closely do you think your wishes for the next West Ham manager align with the board?

It seems that the majority of supporters don't think their wishes will align with those of the board this summer (colour us shocked at that response).

Thought it does seem as if the fans are now not totally believing that the board are doing everything just to spite the club now and making the wrong decisions on purpose, which is some sort of progress.

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