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Comments
It’s time IMO to part ways, Moyes can hold his head high and we can go onto our next stage…
JS doesn't seem to like Moyes
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/may/03/west-ham-close-to-deal-julen-lopetegui-manager-david-moyes
Firstly, I'm obviously thankful for the initial relegation avoidance (in this spell, and previously), the 2 good league finishes and obviously winning the ECL. ALthough we were generally playing counter-attacking football, I don't remember it being as painful to watch as it has been this season.
However, something seems to have gone wrong in the last 2 seasons. I know we won the ECL last season, but, let's be honest, the standard of the opposition was, in the main, pretty poor and I'm sure we were favourites in every tie except maybe the final, and that would have been fairly even I'm sure. Meanwhile in the league we were in a relegation battle for much of the season and this season I feel our league position has flattered us given some of the results we've had (against both Spurs and Chelsea in the early part of the season we should have been at least 3-0 before half time, yet somehow managed to win both). I know we've been on the rough end of a number of refereeing and VAR decisions, but we could easily have had a couple of others given against us that we were fortunate with (Luton springs to mind).
So, back to Moyes. He freely admits that he likes to work with a small squad, but that's not the way of things any more, especially if you're playing European games as well as a full domestic calendar. On every given matchday it's a 16 man game; the ability to introduce fresh legs in the last half an hour can really turn games, and you only have to look at the better teams to see how many goals they score late on in games when they can bring on really strong replacements with fresh legs.
Now I'm not saying we should expect to have 2 fantastic players for every position on the pitch, that's just not realistic, but I've watched too many games this season that we've had players dead on their feet out on the pitch because Moyes won't sub them. And why won't he sub them? Because we've got no-one to replace them with. And why is that? Because Moyes likes a small squad, and even with our small squad, there's an even smaller core squad that you need to be in if you expect to get any meaningful game time.
Personally I think our squad needs a huge amount of work; we'll barely have a starting 11 come the start of the season.
GK: Areola
RB: Coufal (not happy as we've triggered an extension on current, not very high wages, rather than given him a new one)
CB: Mavropanos (shouldn't be a first choice, but who else?)
CB: Zouma (knees shot so we won't be able to offload him)
LB: Emerson
DM: Alvarez
CM: Soucek
AM: JWP
RM/W: Bowen
LM/W: Kudus
CF: Antonio (should be a sub as he can't last an hour, but who else is there?)
Our back-ups are
GK: Fabianski (I believe he's been given a year extension already). I fear age has caught up with him, I hope Areola stays fit.
RB: No-one. Kehrer's obligation has been triggered I believe, and Johnson won't sign a new contract
CB: No-one. Ogbonna surely shouldn't be offered a contract and expected to be one of 4 CBs.
CB: No-one. Aguerd too expensive not to be starting, but not working in a Moyes back 4. At least we should get revenue for him
LB: No-one. Cresswell has refused the offer of another year, he's too slow anyway.
DM: No-one
CM: No-one
AM: Paqueta will be gone if the betting thing is resolved; at least we get good money for him
RM/W: No-one
LM/W: Cornet (might as well be no-one). Not sure if he still has medical issues, but Moyes clearly doesn't fancy him
CF: Ings. Never should have signed him, must offload if any chance to do so.
We do have Flynn Downes to possibly come back to us; he clearly wasn't rated by Moyes last season but has had a very good season for Southampton.
So, if Paqueta goes we can just about field a starting 11, although that includes 2 CBs neither of whom should be starting, and a CF that shouldn't be starting either. Our back-ups are a 39 year old keeper, a LM/W who doesn't seem to have recovered from a long term injury, and a CF who will never be effective for the way we play unless we get relegated.
Apart from Kehrer and Benramha neither of whom I expect to return we should get a fee for Paqueta and Aguerd, and for Downes if Southampton are interested. Ings we might break even on (any fee would likely have to be paid to Ings to negate lower wages from any purchasing club), and I guess we might get a small fee for Cornet.
So, in short, the state of the squad is why Moyes should go. Paqueta we can't blame on Moyes, but, him apart, from this season's squad, next season we've got a starting 11 including 3 players who shouldn't be starting, and a bench consisting of a 39 year old keeper and no-one else. Personally I feel Moyes has been very neglectful of the long term health of the squad, and so has to go.
This said I am very happy for us to part ways with Moyes and feel it's worth a gamble to try and push forward, I just don't think Lopetegui is someone I would like to gamble on. Milan fans certainly didn't like the look of him.
If they did announce he was going with two games left it would make the current uncomfortable atmos around the club even worse for players, staff and the board
Grant wasn't sacked until after we were relegated, they didn't announce Allardyce's contract wouldn't be renewed until about 30 minutes after the last match and the first time Moyes was here they didn't annoucne he wouldn't be staying until 9 days after the last match
If not, despite me wanting him to go, he does deserve a good send off
That'll make him feel at home if appointed
And have you seen how close together his eyes are? (just a joke by the way)
Now he needs a huge appreciative send off from the crowd, a Davy Moyes clarat'n'blue army and then the club need to do all they can to make sure the gamble is worth taking and appoint a manager who can take us forward and supply him the funds to shape his squad.
Much as been said about how thin the squad is but the only benefit of that is the new guy has more ability to shape his squad. Tim S is spoken of as being the messiah in some quarters and this also gives him a chance to demonstrate that by finding good value players and persuading them to come.
I really appreciate Moyes as a man and manager and would not have been up in arms if he was staying, but I must admit I have more enthusiasm about next season knowing we are changing.
I will renew my season ticket whether Moyes goes or not but like you i will have more enthusiasm about next season if there is someone else in charge.