Regretful West Ham must make the right signings to improve

West Ham would have spent the past week in Seville had everything gone to plan. Instead they were thinking about what might have been when the Europa League final took place without them at the Sánchez-Pizjuán on Wednesday, the regret gnawing away at them as Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers slogged it out for 120 minutes before the Bundesliga side won the trophy on penalties.

It will go down as a huge missed opportunity for West Ham. The final was a memorable event, with victory a wonderful achievement by Eintracht, but by common consensus the standard was not high. West Ham had seen better during their European run. Sevilla had offered more quality when they lost to David Moyes’s side in the last 16. Lyon, who were well beaten by West Ham in the quarter-finals, had looked more refined than Oliver Glasner’s awkward Eintracht side.

But that’s knockout football. West Ham rattled Manchester City in the Premier League last weekend but they had only themselves to blame when they lost their Europa League semi-final to Eintracht. They made silly errors in key moments and never recovered from conceding in the first minute of the first leg, Moyes’s decision to match Eintracht’s 3-4-2-1 system backfiring when Pablo Fornals drifted off in his unfamiliar left wing-back role and let Ansgar Knauff give the German side an early lead.

That goal set the tone for the tie. West Ham hit the woodwork three times when they lost the first leg 2-1 at the London Stadium and their exit was inevitable when Aaron Cresswell received a foolish red card 19 minutes into the return game in Frankfurt.

The details went against them, ending their hopes of European glory and chances of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time. Everything felt