A theoretical debate that occasionally comes up online is whether supporters would choose a cup win over being relegated. Personally, I’d consider it too big a sacrifice, but others have different perspectives. After all, there’s no greater joy in football than the thrill of a cup final success.
In many ways, what we have now at West Ham is a watered-down variant of this dilemma. Although attempting to second guess what goes on between David Sullivan’s ears is dangerous territory, there is every chance that our manager would now be down the job centre had his team not been victorious in Prague.
Finding a David Moyes advocate among West Ham supporters is now as rare as spotting the abominable snowman. If they exist in any significant numbers among the fan base, they are keeping quiet about it. From the outside it must look strange that a manager who delivered a first trophy in 43 years and has overseen three successive European campaigns is so widely unappreciated. But theirs is a view formed independently of emotional attachment with the uninspiring style of football served up on the pitch.
Moyes is a relic of bygone age of managers. Footballing fogeys such as Allardyce, Pulis, Bruce, Hughes, and Warnock whose tactics and horizons rarely ventured beyond survival. He is the last man standing, attempting to defy the rising tide of progressive play like a modern-day Canute. Even Roy Of The Palace leaves Moyes in the shadows when it comes to fresh ideas. Whichever way you look at it, there surely cannot be any future for him at the club beyond this season – the last year of his contract. Making it until the end of the year would be astonishing.
And that brings us to the simultaneous tragedy and farce of the summer transfer window. An apparent recruitment by committee that at time of writing has yet to yield a single result – and the new season just over a week away. We are still no closer in understanding who is responsible for what on transfers, or what the priorities are. The Venn diagram of players acceptable to both Moyes and Tim Steidten that also satisfy Sullivan’s bank balance features only Dennis Zakaria at its intersection.
The standoff is presumably between Moyes desire to bring in players capable of hitting the ground running and Steidten’s brief of introducing a forward-looking transfer strategy. The two clearly don’t need to be mutually exclusive despite being presented that way. There are plenty of options out there between the extremes of untested teenagers and sunsetting 30-year-olds. The squad already has a wealth of experience. What it is lacking is youth, pace, mobility, and flair.
A club like West Ham should not be paying big money for players at the end of their careers. There is no future in such an approach and Sullivan is right not to pay over the odds for those with no likely resale value in a year or two’s time. Equally, the record of signing expensive established ‘flops’ – Anderson, Haller, Vlasic, and the soon to be departed Scamacca – and selling at huge discounts is just as unsustainable.
The promise that Steidten’s appointment could herald a methodical, reasoned, and professional approach to recruitment is threatened by the hubris of Sullivan and the stubbornness of Moyes. Unfortunately, the only person who can clear the blockage is Sullivan himself. If the alleged Moyes veto on transfers is a contractual stipulation – didn’t Curbishley have something similar that allowed him to claim constructive dismissal – then it or he needs to be removed immediately. Why let a lame duck manager dictate transfer spend and allow him to burden the club with the hefty wages and long contracts of declining players for years to come?
What will happen between now and the end of the window on September 1st is anyone’s guess. Where clubs are desperate to sell then asking prices will reduce. But where there is no imperative to sell, prices may just as easily go up as buying clubs become more desperate. No doubt there will be signings, but the probability of panic buys rises as the deadline approaches. With even more rumoured outgoings on the cards – Scamacca, Cresswell, Antonio – the risk of a below strength squad is high, both in numbers and quality. To my mind the squad is short of six or seven quality players, but I see no way that such a target can be achieved on past performance .
I see no other scenario than a shockingly poor start to the season from an under prepared side. If, and when, signings are made, Moyes will be hesitant to play them for the opening month or so. With vacancies on the coaching staff also unfilled, it has the feel of a season written off before it has begun. Two or three points from the opening half a dozen games if we are lucky.
Creating such a pessimistic state of affairs within a few months of wining the Conference League final is quite staggering. But West Ham has been a terribly run club for as long as I can remember. The irony being that the level of competence and ambition shown is inversely proportional to the loyalty and passion of the fans. It can’t get any worse, can it? COYI!
Under The Hammers 
Very well written.
Apparently WHU not entertaining any thoughts of being, well, entertaining.
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Cheers Andrew. Ha! Yes, the entertainment factor has got lost among the tactics of low blocks and compact shapes
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This situation between Moyes and steidtens needs to be resolved you can’t have them arguing about what type of player we should be looking to sign while the clock is nearing its end Moyes should have been let go at the end of last season we will continue to struggle with his style of play not to mention that it’s old hat and out dated players leaving and wanting to leave at a alarming rate tells us all we need to know we will probably sign some has been players that are not up to the job we should get Moyes out of our club and bring in a manager that knows how to attract new players get the best out of the players we have now and makes a complete overhaul of the style of play otherwise it will be championship football after this season is done
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Agree with most of that, Benny. The clock must be ticking on Moyes time at West Ham. Can we trust the Board to make a wise decision on his replacement though? A big shake up is required to give supporters something to cheer. Could be a tough season ahead.
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Spot on Geoff, I’ve been making reference to the Curbishley situation for months.
Problem is, who’s available to replace Moyes?
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Hi Brian. I don’t believe Curbs has ever worked again. There needs to be a degree of imagination in appointing the next manager. Don’t know why there is such a dearth of up and coming British managers. I don’t know enough personally about who is hot in the European leagues but other clubs have done OK appointing someone I’d never heard of. It’s going to depend on the knoweledge of whoever is responsible for making the selection.
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A typically excellent summation of the almost incredible situation that WHU now finds itself in. Thanks Geoff. As you know from other sources, my view is that all roads lead back to Moyse. His tactics are archaic and, as a result, it’s no surprise that many of our so called targets simply don’t want to come to the London Stadium. Why would a young, talented footballer with his future in front of him want to come to West Ham to play the sort of rubbish we served up in almost every Premiership game last season? Moyse is, effectively, a dead man walking with one year left on his contract and surely no chance of renewal, and yet he appears to have complete control over our recruitment policy, despite the presence of Newman ( great value for a million a year!), Steidten and Noble. Amazing.
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Hi Mike, for a young player it’s not just a case of the tactics but how much game time you are likely to get. Coming on as a 90th minute substitute to waste time is not going to aid development. That kid from City will learn far more playing each week at Ajax than cutting the oranges at West Ham.
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Hi Geoff
An excellent article.
If you read through the various West Ham fan sites on the internet there are a surprising (to me) number of supporters who continue to defend Moyes, mainly on the back of last season’s European success. I just don’t understand it.
The football for a season and a half at least has been uninspiring to watch, the results (Europe excepted) have been poor, our key player has left, others want out allegedly, coaching staff have gone, and no new arrivals are on the horizon.
I’ve no idea how our recruitment process is meant to work between Sullivan, Moyes, Steidten, Newman and Noble, and with the season barely a week away the apparent incompetence of how our club is run is staggering.
I am always optimistic but in a prediction competition this season I’ve gone for a 13th place finish. I’m beginning to think that may be way too optimistic!
I can’t see beyond a poor start and another struggling season. I hope I am proved wrong.
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Hi Rich, Interesting, I hadn’t come across too many Moyes acolytes recently. It’s fair enough to respect the achievements of the last few seasons and actually winning a trophy but the football has been mostly dire. Without one of best midfielders in Europe to carry the team, you have to fear the worst. Somewhere around 13th might be a reasonable stab at finishing position on the basis that there will be a new manager before then
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To retain Moyse on the basis of our win in Europe is laughable. We played some seriously poor sides. Even the much feared Fiorentina turned out to offer very little up front. They did have Amrabat thought, and so,by now, should we.
If you want to make judgements, look instead at our performance in the Premiership,particularly against top six teams. Pitiful.
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This is getting to the crux of the matter: West Ham was by far the biggest club in that competition (market value over £100m more than Fiorentina). We were favourites and the players, despite the negative tactics, won. At the same time, in the real world, we were losing 20 games at a far higher level in the Premiership. It depends which version of reality you buy into.
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Personally, I wouldn’t write off or belittle the trophy win. It was a memorable occasion even if there were only a few teams at our level taking part (and who we managed to avoid in the draw). But it is an unavoidable fact that it was a dreadful league season. And that 20 defeats is a damning statistic. It would more often than not get you relegated. I would have preferred Moyes to have gone out on that ‘high’ but it was not to be.
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I didn’t mean to belittle the competition during which I attended the home games. To win it was a fine achievement, and it was great also to have the extra cash and further qualification. But we lost 20 games at a higher level playing really poor stuff. That’s where we are and DM has retained his job. Players we approach will have done their homework. Not good.
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Can’t disagree with you there, John. Immediately after the end of the season I had written an article highlighting the number of defeats, the fact that it was one of our lowest scoring seasons ever and calling for Moyes to be sacked. In the end I didn’t post it as it felt inappropriate with the final coming up. The win must have saved his job but can only see it as a temporary reprieve. Not sure I’ve ever felt as deflated before the start of a new season
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A gre
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I join John Harrison in saying I would never belittle the teams’ achievements in Europe. The way in which we won the final was electric . Ironically, it also showed how we can play if the players are given the right encouragement and freedom
My point was very much your point, out of 38 Premiership games last season we either lost or drew 27. That should be completely unacceptable and I still can’t believe it wasn’t thought to be so by our Board.
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I think we all pretty much agree. Sullivan has bottled it. Allowing the cup win to cloud his judgement after a shocking Premier League season. He has allowed Moyes to stay but at the same time not really backing him. Chaotic indecisiveness
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Exactly, or the squid
game approach to running a football club…
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It’s ok to bring in players able to hit the ground running, the question is “ how fast can they run”? I could probably outsprint Maguire and I turned 78 on Tuesday! Not only do we need players, we need some youth and lots more pace. Seeing us treading water running back to cover after another failed corner was pitiful sometimes last season. Can’t believe we haven’t gone in with takeout bids for Amrabat and Gallagher.
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Just been watching the first half of the friendly against Leverkusen. Good god, we were poor. I reckon you wouldn’t have looked out of place on the pitch, Mike. Can still get a tune out of an old 78
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Better ask Mrs. O that question. Of course we were poor, what did anyone expect? Honestly, there should be criminal charges. Even if we do manage to recruit a couple of second-tier targets., by the time Moyse has spent six weeks “ integrating” them we will be deep in the mire.
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