Regardless of whether West Ham stay up or not this season, it hasn’t been the best campaign for the Hammers, their exploits in the Europa Conference League notwithstanding.
The east Londoners are just about keeping their heads above water in the relegation dog-fight, but a team that contains the likes of Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Gianluca Scamacca et al, shouldn’t be anywhere near the bottom of the table.
After getting into the Europa League semi-finals last season the Hammers really should’ve pushed on, and the fact that they haven’t done so has to be seen as an abject failure on the club’s part.
As Stan Collymore wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, the board really need to make a decision on what sort of club they want West Ham to be.
‘West Ham have got to decide what they want to be. Whether they want to go down the road of having a progressive younger coach of the type that Roberto De Zerbi or Thomas Frank are,’ he wrote.
‘Would they even go for a Gary O’Neil, one of West Ham’s own of course? Look at the job he’s done at Bournemouth. Or do West Ham’s board give David Moyes another year whereby they know what his style and substance is, but it’s a little bit samey and players can zone out?’
It’s difficult to square the fact that the team running riot in Europe’s third tier competition is the same one that is being routinely battered in the English top-flight.
Though they’ve had a couple of positive results of late, the performance levels haven’t been anywhere close to where they should be for a team of such quality.
Much of the blame for the mentality shift will be put on the players themselves but David Moyes needs to take most of the burden on his shoulders because of his inability to get his players motivated week in and week out for what have become must-win matches as the weeks have ticked by.
In terms of a manager for next season, Collymore’s mind is at least made up on who it shouldn’t be.
‘I think they are way better than 15th in the table because their European form has proved that. If it was me I’d be looking to twist and move on from David Moyes,’ he added.
‘You tap into his experience perhaps as a director of football or some kind of role to acknowledge what he’s done, because it’s been significant, but if they continue with Moyes, it would be a bit of a lazy choice because they should be getting more out of the squad than he is.
‘There’s no reason why the club shouldn’t go for a proactive coach that plays front-foot, aggressive football. If Thomas Frank and Unai Emery can get their clubs up into European positions, the West Ham board should be looking at things and saying we need someone who can do the same on a regular basis. I’m not convinced that Moyes can do that in the league anymore.
Surprisingly, of late, David Moyes is getting a tune out of his West Ham team. If the second half performance against Arsenal, the destruction of Gent and the annihilation of Bournemouth continues we may yet see another re-birth of David Moyes the manager – until
at least the end of the season. But, it’s time for David and the owners to move on. Fresh ideas are required. Hopefully in the form of a younger and progressive manager to inject life into West Ham United