It’s not really been the best of seasons for David Moyes and West Ham United, but perhaps its about time we stopped only blaming the managers when things don’t go right.
After all, we’ve seen quite clearly that the Scot can still get a tune out of those same players in Europe.
Ahead of their Europa Conference League semi-final first-leg against AZ Alkmaar, there’s a distinct impression that West Ham’s first-team players can pull it out of the bag when they want to.
What is it… do they want to get the manager sacked so they’ll only turn up when they feel like it? Certainly seems that way.
Moyes might not play the expansive, attacking and front foot football that West Ham fans want to see week in and week out, but then he doesn’t really have the players to do that when all is said and done.
A manager is only as good as his staff and it’s they that’ve been poor for the most part of the 2022/23 campaign.
If they’re able to raise their game again over the two legs of the semi-final and then go on to win the final of the European competition, what justification does the club really have to get rid of Moyes.
He’s almost certainly kept them up again this season too, which is no mean feat.
With the sale of Declan Rice likely to bring in some big numbers, he can strengthen in other areas, and the likelihood is that next season won’t be close to being as arduous as the current one.
The buck stops with the manager . A quality manager will get average players to play well as a team . The sum of the whole ( as a team ) should be more than the sum of the parts , if not the manager is doing something wrong . Moyes’s management over 17 months has made a squad of quality players look like relegation fodder and will do so again next season if allowed to . Westham must be prepared to pay top price for the right quality manager . Only if Westham can’t secure a top quality replacement manager would I stick with Moyes .