West Ham United’s point at home to Middlesborough last weekend will hardly have appeased their fans at the new London Stadium but it at least halted a run of four straight Premier League defeats.

Few would have predicted the disastrous start to the season that has befallen a team so impressive last term.

Manager Slaven Bilic, has been forced to  use 23 different players so far (only David Moyes at Sunderland has used as many) as an early season injury crisis has gripped his squad.

Within the Hammers ranks though, there must be several players who feel they maybe should have moved on in the summer. Here are three men who, amid the difficult start, might be regretting opting to stay.

Reece Oxford

Reece Oxford is already a well-known name in English football despite the fact that he does not turn 18 until the festive period.

The defender has been coveted by the country’s biggest clubs since long before he made his league debut last August and is regularly compared to Rio Ferdinand.

This season though, despite Bilic’s requirement to use his entire squad, Oxford has yet to make an appearance.

The youngster is already an impressive athlete but must now get game time to begin honing his skills and start to achieve his potential.

His future at west Ham still looks like a promising one but a loan move for the season would perhaps have been a better option than providing cover, which so far, Bilic has preferred not to call on.

Dimitri Payet

The little Frenchman was undoubtedly one of the stars of last season’s Premier League and also shone brightly for host nation France at the Euro 2016 championships.

Sublime skill, precision crossing and lethal free-kicks made Payet an instant Upton Park hero but he could now be forgiven for thinking he made the wrong decision in sticking with the Irons.

The former Marseille man likely saw West Ham as a club on the up, with a positive league finish, a new home imminent and money to spend but he might just have been better off jumping ship for a more established outfit.

Payet is something of a late bloomer and at 29 years old, will know his opportunities to feature regularly in the Champions League are limited. He could yet attempt to force through a move to one of Europe’s elite.

Pedro Obiang

Obiang was one of a host of new arrivals at the club prior to the start of last season but has so far failed to establish himself in the side.

The former Sampdoria man has just 11 starts for the Hammers under his belt and despite the injury problems has remained a bit-part player this term.

The Spaniard is a tidy midfielder who prefers to sit just in front of the back four but with Cheikhou Kouyate and Mark Noble fixtures in the side, he has found it difficult to break in.

The arrival of Havard Nordtveit in the summer has seen him slip further down the pecking order. The 24-year-old should realise by now that the best option would be to have his agent working on a January escape route.

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