West Ham manager, David Moyes, has endured a tough time of it since the turn of the New Year.
The Hammers weren’t able to grab a win in 2024 until the recent fixtures against Brentford and Everton, both of which appeared to coincide with the return of exciting attacking midfield ace, Lucas Paqueta.
The Brazilian couldn’t have timed things any better given that the East Londoners play Bundesliga side, Freiburg, in the Europa League on Thursday.
If West Ham are able to beat the German outfit over the two legs of their Round of 16 tie, it would see them into a third consecutive European quarter-final.
Despite the drop off in domestic form, Moyes was keen to lean into his record in Europe by way of perhaps advancing that supporters wanting him out should be careful what they wish for.
David Moyes has talked up West Ham’s European credentials
“Our European stats are impressive, I have to say. I think for West Ham to be a European club in the first place was incredible,” he was quoted as saying by the official West Ham website.
“I remember it greatly the game we qualified [against Southampton in May 2021], and the celebration because we were going on a European tour.
“We’ve been on it now for three years, and we’ve played over 30 games in the three years in Europe, which has given you an idea of what we’ve had to do so it’s a good stat and we want to keep it going and we want to build on it.
“I didn’t know that I’ve been in charge of 40% of all the games that West Ham have played in Europe so I’ll take that and hopefully we can keep it going.”
It would be a brave man that would bet that the Irons could go all the way to the final and perhaps even go on to win it, given the strength of teams that remain in the competition.
Moyes will surely understand that but clearly prefers to accentuate the positives.
Should his side end up with nothing this season and not qualify for Europe next season, however, the expected new contract for the Scot might well be reneged upon by the Hammers.