A former West Ham star admits he is concerned by one thing he saw when behind the scenes at West Ham.

Julen Lopetegui’s appointment didn’t come without backlash from West Ham fans, they went as far as to sign a petition against him in their thousands, but when it was made official fans united to get behind him. Disappointingly, the club’s poor start to the season has resulted in some already turning against him.

On paper, he’s inherited one of the best squads the Hammers have had in the Premier League era,

which has then been improved further by the recruitment team’s big spending this past Summer. However, on paper doesn’t necessarily mean that the team will succeed.

Unfortunately, you can have a squad full of incredible individuals, but if they can’t come together as a cohesive unit then the team will never succeed. One of, if not, the most important things to have is a balance of leaders – something that the squad clearly lacked last season.

Frustratingly, despite spending well over £100 million, it isn’t something the recruitment team seem to have addressed, with former player Nigel Reo-Coker claiming it’s something he picked up on when watching the side in preseason.

“Do you know what my biggest concern is?” Reo-Coker asked BBC 5 live. “I spent a bit of time with them this pre-season when they were on tour in America, and I think when I look at their performances now and all the change and what’s going on, my biggest worry is the lack of characters that I saw there, especially with how things are going.”

“For me, Bowen is someone who can be a character and personality, but I just think now it is too much for him to do it by himself.”

Kurt Zouma being appointed as captain turned out to be a disastrous decision last season, and picking Bowen as captain wasn’t unanimously agree with by fans. With that being said, there’s not a player at the club who loves West Ham more than Jarrod does, and there’s certainly not one who gets what it means to wear the armband for such a special club more than he does. His leadership and passion has already been seen in parts of this campaign, but it’s when the team is struggling like it is now that they really need their skipper to drag them through to the other side.