Alan Smith gives West Ham unwanted title as £51m star singled out amid transfer rumours

Former Arsenal and Leicester City striker Alan Smith has labelled West Ham as the most 'underperforming' club in the Premier League so far this season, with one Hammers man singled out for his lacklustre efforts.

Julen Lopetegui has managed just three victories from his opening 11 top flight matches with the side sitting 14th in the table. The Spaniard has also seen his side beaten 3-0 by Nottingham Forest and 4-1 by Tottenham Hotspur in recent weeks.

It's not going to get any easier for West Ham either with fixtures against Newcastle United and Arsenal in the next two weeks. A lack of results hasn't been helped by a summer of big investment into the Lopetegui era.

Smith told AceOdds: "I think West Ham have been. They changed the manager, and Lopetegui, former Spain, and former Real Madrid manager came in. The fans had grown tired of David Moyes, they wanted a change. They were hoping this would be for the better. It hasn't worked out so far.

"They are a big club and they get 60,000 every home match and you were expecting them to perk up a bit, but it's gone the other way. I think that has probably been the biggest one.

"And amongst those players, Paquetá, you look towards him to create things, to get stuff going. It hasn't really happened for him at all. Still at this early stage, people are wondering whether Lopetegui is the right man for the job and whether there will be a change."

That criticism of the Brazil international, who joined the club for £51 million from Lyon in 2022, comes in a week when West Ham have been linked with a deal to sign Manchester City man Jamex McAtee. The 22-year-old has enjoyed loan spells with Sheffield United in the past but struggled to break through at Manchester City, despite being labelled as 'special' by Pep Guardiola when working his way up through the ranks in the North West.