West Ham United are a long way off the team they were last season and former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore believes the only chance David Moyes has of keeping his job, is if he guides the Hammers to a top-half Premier League finish.
The Londoners have not won in their last six matches, in all competitions, with their most recent result being an underwhelming 2-2 draw against Leeds United.
Entering a crucial run of games that includes ties against fellow relegation contenders Everton, whom they sit level on points with, West Ham must start picking points if they’re to avoid being cast adrift.
It won’t be easy though, especially when several of the Hammers’ best players have yet to perform this season, including winger Jarrod Bowen, who hasn’t scored in the league since last September.
Speaking about Moyes’ precarious future, as well as what he needs to do in order to stay in the club’s hot seat, Collymore, who spoke exclusively to CaughtOffside, said: “They’ve not won in a while and that’s very worrying – very worrying for David Moyes indeed.
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“He’s long enough in the tooth to understand that results decide a manager’s future, so he’s got to turn it around and quickly.
“The only thing that may be going in his favour at the moment is the fact that a couple of seasons ago, if I remember rightly, they had an awful run of six or seven fixtures, including games against most of the top four teams. It was an incredibly hard run and yet they picked up a fair few points and that little spell gave them the momentum they needed to go on and eventually qualify for the Europa League.
“So the question now is was that squad good enough all along to challenge for a European place and are they underachieving now, or did they massively overachieve and they’re actually relegation contenders? – I think the reality is neither. They should consider themselves somewhere in between.
“If Moyes is given more time and sees the season out and West Ham finishes ninth or higher, he’ll keep his job and go again next season, but a 10th to 12th place finish will put him on the line and anything below that will put the writing on the wall.”