Anton
I totally understand fans being frustrated at our current position in the league. why wouldn’t you be? We have come off of 2 consecutive seasons in a row of positive free flowing football, scoring goals , conceding? Yes, but outscoring what we concede, 2 top 7 finishes in a row, a European Semi Finalist and to be honest we were unfortunate not to go on and win the tournament.
A huge amount of investment in the team, investment that many of us fans have asked for, for many a transfer window, players came in that met the criteria rather than signing big money players who don’t add value. Let’s be brutally honest here, would we have invested this amount of money in the quality of players we have if Moyes had not transformed this side?
Yes you heard me right, Transformed. How has he not transformed us? Because we have had an below average start to the season? Now i don’t want to be a broken record however here is some context for you!
Let’s rewind back to November 2017 when we appointed Moyes which at the time the majority of West Ham fans called it a very underwhelming addition. We were a team in the relegation zone, struggling to string a pass together, fast forward to the end of the season , what happened? Moyes got the best from the squad and he kept us up. Now many a fan I spoke to at the time had suggested that we should of kept the faith with Moyes but I also can’t help but feel that the very loud West Ham fans contributed to change so much that the board listened and did not renew his contract.
Some would see that as an unfair decision, at the time we were linked to a whole host of managers, but we ended up with Pellegrini a well thought of manager who won the Premier League title with Man City had only been in China for a couple seasons before returning to Europe with our beloved West Ham , at the time David Sullivan released what some would say a odd statement on the club website more or less saying this is what the fans wanted and this is what we will give them. And let’s just say the rest is history.
Do we want a repeat of that again? Now i’m not saying that will necessarily happen again however when pellegini left the club , the joint owners with mud on their face approached Moyes about a return to the club and he did just that, as soon as he arrived he made some what some would be simple tweeks with the side , he changed the fitness levels addressed areas of the pitch that had been needing addressed for such a long time he established a very hardworking team.
This recent success has not come overnight, and I honestly do believe some people forget where we have come from.; I get it, I’m not saying you are wrong if you want Moyes sacked , I’m not saying you are right if you don’t, I’m merely trying to point out the fact that for the 1st time in a very long time we as a club have some form of stability, we have attracted world class talent with a current crop of world class players (Declan Rice to be exact)
Survived relegation followed by 2 top 7 finishes in a row and a European semi final is nothing to be coy about. We are unbeaten the Europe yes okay it’s the 3rd tier but you could argue we have utilised the squad a lot in Europe, Players that were brought in to start or at least challenge the current crop of players have had a mix start to their careers.
Let’s not be naïve enough to know change takes time. Injuries happen and therefore we sometimes start with the same team we had last year , the team that got us to a European semi final, the same team that some people yes last season go frustrated with because our premier league form dipped, I mean we got further in Europe than many other British teams did last year, and are showing promising signs in Europe this year again fingers crossed that continues. But as Moyes has stated the premier league is the bread and butter, so what’s gone wrong, has anything gone wrong? Moyes man management is a frustrating thing for many fans, lets look at Jarrod Bowen when he signed he did not regularly start for the club and was bedded in slowly but look how that worked out, it did him the world of good, I suppose the statement there was keep the faith. Now we find ourselves this season with several new world class players brought in , let’s look at Scammacca , a striker brought in to completely change the dynamics of our forward line, someone that can do what Antonio does but can also shoot from distance and get stuck in deep in the park, he didn’t start the season as a starter but looked like he was going to get a run of games then came down with a virus resulting in West Ham relying on Antonio once again, Paqueta I mean do I really need to tell you what sort of player this geezer is? a run of games showing us exactly why Moyes brought him in, a hardworking creative , progressive footballer who feeds Scamacca and really anyone else in the team, a player that was really getting into his groove until he picked up that injury. Cornet heavily involved goals scored or created this season a progressive player who could be a game changer when fit. Aguerd injured at the start of the season looks like a complete baller at the back who will completely change the dynamics of how West Ham move forward up the park.
I’m not going through all the players but these particular 4 can really be game changers, and the squad is working hard to keep ourselves within reach. We should of got something at Chelsea, minimum a point if it wasn’t for var, really unlucky not to walk away with the 3 points v Spurs, unlucky not to walk away with at least a point v Liverpool and Manchester Utd, another 5 points on the board and things would look a little different. I get it, hindsight is a wonderful thing but we are creating chances or were prior to the Crystal Palace game , but if we were not creating chances week in and week out I’d be heavily worried.
My word we were creating chances with 3 central defensive midfielders in our team.
In a nutshell I’m saying keep the faith, let’s see how we are after the World Cup, lets see who is fit and lets hope we start putting that ball in the back of the net.
Keep the faith
The grass is not always greener
