The transfer window closed on August 31st with West Ham making a couple of late signings in the shape of Blackburn's International Lars Jacobsen - who played in all three of Denmark's games in this year's World Cup in South Africa - and reserve keeper and wonderfully named Ruud Boffin, a 22 year-old signed from Maastricht.

The Hammers also fended off a late bid from Liverpool to coax Carlton Cole away and rebuffed the umteenth bid from Spurs for Scott Parker. In fact, indications that Parker and Upson seemed quite happy to sign new contracts was a good indicator that some of the more experienced players, at least, seem keen to tie themselves to the mast of a ship that many commentators are currently predicting will be floundering on the rocks by Christmas.

I know that the coaching staff's inability to get the best from the available players is about 90% of West Ham's problems but I'd have to say that if only half of the named squad performed to their full potential, we surely shouldn't be hanging around the bottom for long. There's also an impressive list of available under-21's compared to everyone else in the league made up of Academy players - five of whom have already played Premier or Cup football and acquitted themselves well - who will undoubtably all be playing for Chelsea and ManU in 5 years time. Despite the doom and gloom there really is NO excuse... errr...is there?

The full squad list of all the Premiership teams can be found here

The full 25 man squad is as follows: (Homegrown players are listed in bold)

Ruud Boffin, Robert Green, Tal Ben Haim, Manuel Da Costa, Daniel Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Lars Jacobsen, Winston Reid, Jonathan Spector, Matthew Upson, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami, Jack Collison, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Radoslav Kovac, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Pablo Barrera, Carlton Cole, Zavon Hines, Benni McCarthy, Victor Obinna, Frederic Piquionne. (West Ham can also use young players including: Marek Stech, Jordan Brown, Holmar Orn Eyjolfsson, Matthew Fry (on loan at Charlton Athletic), Callum McNaughton, Filip Modelski, Jordan Spence, James Tomkins, Anthony Edgar, Olly Lee, Junior Stanislas, Eoin Wearen, Ahmed Abdulla, Cristian Montano, Frank Nouble, Freddie Sears.)