The players who are not away representing their countries went through a strenuous double training session and fitness tests at a sweltering Chadwell Heath on Thursday - and there was certainly no letting up despite the next game being over a week away.
Reflecting on the first half a dozen games of the campaign Alan says:
"We had a good pre-season and I was happy with that but, unfortunately, we had the bid for Michael two days before the season started so that took him out of the equation and it went on for a while - and then losing Christian was a big blow to us.
"If we had got something at Coventry I would have been delighted, but that put a stain on the start.
Alan acquired one of his targets in Carl Fletcher during the week, and is hoping for more luck in the transfer market in the next 10 days as well.
Regarding Carl, he says:
"He is someone we have been looking at for a while, and we were able to capitalize on the Bosman situation - as we did with Marlon - and that allowed us to get a good price.
"He is a character and a leader and hopefully he can come into the side and do what he has been doing at Bournemouth for the last two years - which is play top football."
As for adding further to the squad, Alan says:
"We are waiting for things to happen now the window has shut in the Premiership - that opens the door because Premiership players now can't move within the division, so now we are first port of call with some of them.
"I have been waiting for that to happen and now we will see if there are any new players available, and if not we are going to have to find some from the Football League; that is where we are at the moment - we are investigating a few options."
Alan feels the club is a good draw for potential targets and says:
"With the support we have got, and the infrastructure and history we have behind us, whenever I speak to a player, albeit that he would have wanted to stay in the Premiership, his first choice is usually us.
"That gives us an advantage, and it was obviously a big advantage securing Teddy's signature.
"The same goes for Sergei - both were important signatures for us this season."
Alan acknowledges that playing two games in three days then having nearly a fortnight without a game - followed by another bout of frenetic activity - is not ideal, and he says:
"We are all in the same boat but it is difficult, with the games coming in thick and fast, when we have had players such as Christian Dailly, Andy Melville, Bobby Zamora and Steve Lomas out.
"Bobby, I believe, will be back after the break, but unfortunately Steve Lomas is suspended.
"Andy Melville will return as well and it will be marvellous to have three new ones.
"As I said, if we had got something at Coventry I would have been very pleased because I know we are going to kick on from here.
"But we have to pick ourselves up now because that defeat was unexpected - as some of the poor displays have been this year - and I know we can improve on it with the players we have."
Nonetheless, there are a number of big clubs that would gladly swap places with West Ham at the moment - the likes of Leeds, Sunderland, Wolves, and Leicester are at the wrong end of the table - and Alan says:
"Someone said to me the other day 'the league is upside down' and I said 'I hope not' - because we are in the top half.
"But certainly there is a lot of pressure on managers in this division because the boys that come down are expected to bounce back, as we were last year.
"We are all feeling that pressure and the expectation from the media is difficult.
"It is a tough time for managers and basically we just want to keep our heads down and get continuity in our teams.
"But that is not so easy the way the league fixtures have panned out this year; we have this break then five or six games in a short period again.
"It is not ideal, and maybe it will cause an 'evening out' of the division - but I hope not, because ultimately, when we come to April or May, we want to be top of the league.
"At the moment, though, there is some way to go to make up on Wigan."