Slaven Bilic has clearly made some improvements around the club, bringing in some of his own talent and getting the best out of some of the players at West Ham who were not to Sam Allardyce's taste.

He also brought in a player who had an up-and-down time at West Ham during a loan spell last term.

Alex Song excelled at the start of last season after arriving on loan from Barcelona. The Cameroonian's form however slipped toward the end of the campaign and this summer it looked like West Ham would not be exploring the possibility of bringing him back. In the end however they did.

Song joined the club once again on Transfer Deadline Day but still has not played for West Ham in his second stint.

He is still suffering with a niggling injury that plagued his latter period of last season but it seems he is nearing his long-awaited second debut.

Speaking to his press conference today Slaven Bilic confirmed that Song would play in a behind closed doors friendly on Wednesday and that Song was approaching a return to fitness:

"Alex Song has been training with us since before the Watford game. He's been with us for one week and is injury free.

"Now it's a matter of match fitness. We have a friendly game on Wednesday and he will play in that."

Whilst West Ham have been performing well enough without Song cracks showed against Watford last week and an increased depth to team selection can only be a good thing for West Ham in their pursuit of European football.