Moyes’s second spell at the London Stadium is confounding popular sentiment at the time of his appointment and possibly his own expectations, but wider lessons are hard to come by“The game has changed immeasurably in the two decades since Moyes first started,” an idiot wrote in these pages two years ago. “And so in he shuffles, a man who neither improves teams nor greatly degrades them but will simply be there, right until he isn’t. He won’t take you in the wrong direction because he doesn’t take you in any direction.”As West Ham United sit fourth in the Premier League after a stirring cultural revolution that has transformed the club’s psyche and taken them into Europe, it turns out that...
David Moyes’s side have lost at home after their previous two Europa League wins, though face Spurs in confident moodIt is too early to say whether following their first two European assignments with a couple of late home defeats is part of a worrying trend for West Ham, who have every reason to feel confident before hosting Tottenham at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.These are unusually heady times for the east London club, who maintained their perfect record in the Europa League by beating Genk 3-0 on Thursday night, and David Moyes hopes his side still have plenty left in the tank before facing Spurs. “I want to try and challenge on all fronts if I can,” West Ham’s...
Instead of focusing on fancy, fragile football, fortunes are rising at London Stadium as wide variety keeps opponents guessing West Ham’s image of themselves is not matched by the view from outside. A pragmatist such as Sam Allardyce could not connect with the club even when he managed them. The demand for entertainment infuriated him and he hated the West Ham way, regarding it with ill-disguised contempt. Related: Tomas Soucek double sends West Ham fourth with win over Crystal Palace Continue reading...
The Hammers may survive this season but the prospects for the next one do not look good – just ask fans of the Wearside club now in League OnePerhaps this time the Ferryman will not accept the fare. Wednesday’s unlikely victory over Chelsea, allied to the abjection of Norwich and Bournemouth and the struggles of Aston Villa and Watford, means West Ham may survive this season, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t major questions for the club to answer, foremost among them who should be their manager.Wednesday’s Premier League game turned out to be a clash of two managerial flaws, the inability of Frank Lampard sides to defend set‑pieces or counterattacks winning out over the tendency of David Moyes sides...
Less than two years after his brand of pragmatic survival was deemed not what they wanted the club have had second thoughtsWell, I’m sorry to say again: it’s Moysey. In many ways the West Ham to which David Moyes returns this week is largely similar to the one he left 19 months ago: riven by discord, scarred by multiple defeats, lacking not just an identity but the most basic idea of what that identity might be. If Moyes was the answer, and then Manuel Pellegrini, and then Moyes again after him, then what on earth was the question?Moyes has signed an 18-month contract. It is the gloomiest of all contract lengths: a Sherwood‑at‑Tottenham contract, an Allardyce‑at‑Everton contract: a transparently unsatisfying...