Is a new set of clubs challenging and threatening the Premier League’s established order on the horizon?
Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Brighton are all in the mix, but there’s a strong case to be made that self-proclaimed ‘we are big’ West Ham ought to be there as well.
The club that claims to have won the World Cup in 1966 has never had it so good in the Premier League. They appear to be financially stable and to have a lot of opportunities ahead of them. These are glorious times, and David Moyes deserves much of the credit.
He no longer deserves the dithering Dave label he was given at Everton — if he ever did — because of his reluctance about fresh signings, and is now West Ham’s anointed Moyesiah.
Last season, the Hammers flirted with relegation, and the Europa Conference League run appeared to be papering over the cracks, but even in those dismal moments, when his number appeared to be up, Moyes led his team away from the bottom three and won a European title.
He appeared to be a little frail, a little delicate. I spoke with him at a gathering, and he was unhappy that radio phone-ins were proposing he be fired and conducting polls on his future.
‘Moysie, that’s the price on the ticket for you highly-paid football managers,’ I told him. I walked away thinking he sounded finished. It merely goes to show how much I knew!
When the future looks bleak, good managers with the correct attitude may overcome huge obstacles. Moyes accomplished exactly that, drowning off hostility from the stands to end the club’s 42-year trophy wait.
He is the best thing to happen to West Ham in a long time. He demonstrated great character by taking the position again after being knocked out for Manuel Pellegrini in his first term. It was a stroke of luck that brought Moyes back, and it demonstrated the man’s character that he was willing to try again.
West Ham had treated him like a disposable razor. He’d come in, sharpened them up, and when they thought he was too direct, he was replaced by a manager who the owners thought was a huge name for the fans.
But Moyes’ days of being disposable are over. He truly is a guy for all seasons since he has accomplished something major at West Ham every season, beginning with survival after the debacle Pellegrini created, followed by sixth, seventh, and a trophy.
There should be a lot of hope at the club right now. The days of pitch invasions to criticize the owners appear to be over. The hysterical complaints about the London stadium – or, as I like to call it, the taxpayer stadium – are over. Any last reservations about the boss must have vanished. Everything rests on success in football, and prior mistakes appear to have been forgotten and forgiven by a re-engaged fans.
This season, Moyes appears to be re-energized; he’s a better version of the manager we saw take over at Old Trafford in 2013, and he’s surely better qualified to lead Manchester United than he was ten years ago.
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