For many who were there on Sunday, it felt like the end. The tried and tested aspects of a David Moyes football team – the rugged functionality and dependable sturdiness – disappear in plain sight. Eight months after the indelible memories of European glory and Moyes’ celebratory dance in a Prague dressing room, West Ham supporters stared into the concrete beneath their seats at half-time, trying to come to terms with the way Arsenal were playing their eviscerated team.
Some within West Ham believe there is no way back after this 6-0 home defeat. That the players are no longer with Moyes. That the club needs the imagination and flair of ‘a new Roberto De Zerbi’. Graham Potter maybe. Without work and very available.
That strikes me as very strange logic, given that De Zerbi – the apparent model manager – has navigated Brighton to ninth place in the Premier League this season, while West Ham are… eighth. For the third year in a row, the knockout stages of a European tournament are on the horizon. Spring in Istanbul, Braga or perhaps Lisbon.
Delve into the numbers and you’ll find something that debunks the idea that it was all grey, solid and boring football with Moyes and West Ham – whatever the current goal difference measure may say. The club scored more goals per game in his second spell at the helm than any manager in the Premier League era, even the much-loved Slaven Bilic. Only Bilic scored more goals per game than Moyes in his first spell.
Some within West Ham feel there is no way back for David Moyes after the 6-0 against Arsenal, but he has taken this often chaotic club to great heights
Fans left the London Stadium in droves on Sunday as West Ham trailed Arsenal 4-0 at half-time
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And then there are the heights he has reached with this often chaotic club. West Ham had achieved three top seven finishes in the entire Premier League era before Moyes arrived. Under him they achieved two. Just 47 days ago they beat Arsenal in the Emirates, having just dismissed Manchester United. But despite all that, he is currently third in the sack race.
Some on the outside feel joy. There has been a national fascination with how much criticism Moyes can take since those excruciating 10 months at Manchester United more than a decade ago, even though he has resilience. An extraordinary resilience, actually.
Arsenal’s biggest away win in the Premier League on Sunday overshadowed the 6-1 defeat inflicted on Moyes’ Everton on the first weekend of the 2009/10 season. Moyes – in the midst of a very public war over Manchester City’s attempts to sign Joleon Lescott at the time – was pictured with his head in his hands as his side shipped their third. A poor start to the season was certainly not terminal for the Everton team, who lost two of their last 24 games. They were able to overcome bad runs and big defeats because of the culture he instilled – by building good characters who could survive the very worst of times.
That resilience was always part of the furniture at Goodison, where he turned Everton into ‘the People’s Club’, to quote a phrase he used spontaneously at his first press conference there more than twenty years ago. To this day, these words adorn one of the outer walls of Goodison Park. Moyes and that club – that city – fit together so well.
When he first joined West Ham, he believed these types of ties were transferable. He was given a six-month contract at a club that was clearly failing under Bilic and spoke of the need to make the players ‘cry’ with sheer physical exertion. It was what West Ham needed. They couldn’t even defend at that point.
Yet I remember something slightly contradictory about the press conference at the London Stadium on that November day in 2017. Moyes – whose smile sometimes lingered a little – discussed his utilitarian work ethic in front of a cast-iron montage of words once used to enhance the experience of watching to Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters gliding to victory – ‘wishing with bated breath as the backdrop for folklore’.
He would achieve more than supporters could have imagined: keeping West Ham in the Premier League; watching Manuel Pellegrini take his own job and enjoy a £200m transfer pot to boot; returning inexorably to restore the pragmatism, the search for value and the work ethic that have always been fundamental to his management.
But an observation Moyes made during that first press conference was more important than we knew at the time. “If style is more important than winning, then I’ll find out from the fans when I get going,” he said. His conclusion was that the results transcended football aesthetics.
It’s strange logic that people think West Ham need a Roberto De Zerbi when Brighton are below them in the table
Moyes and Everton fit together so well; one of his quotes, ‘the People’s Club’, still adorns an outer wall of Goodison Park
Sacking Moyes for a bad afternoon would be utter folly after his successes
Style is more important to West Ham fans than most. A style of football that echoes the memory of the 1966 World Cup heroes, whose statue still stands in Green Street, Upton Park. A style of manager who knows how to unite a demanding fan base with personality and flair and give them something beautiful to see. That’s why they loved the bones of Harry Redknapp and, for a long time, Bilic too. That is why Moyes is not a good fit for Goodison.
Supporters should be careful what they wish for in Potter: a Pro License coach without much personal charisma who is no better fit for them than Moyes. It feels like a change of manager will bring new danger and danger to this club, which is not the richest. It feels like Moyes deserves a much longer credit line and more appreciation, for football without the frippery and the dreaded ‘philosophy’. To ensure that the London Stadium and joy are not mutually exclusive.
“I hope it’s a long stay – long enough for both of us to be happy,” Moyes said that November day at the West Ham stadium, as brilliant sunlight bathed the room. The latter stages of his managerial career appear to have been an ongoing process of proving people wrong – by coming back – and the aftermath of last Sunday’s brings that need back again. A bitter complaint about that performance is entirely reasonable. So was the decision many made to expose themselves to the entire destruction and leave before the end. But firing a good man and excellent professional because of a really bad afternoon? That would be an act of downright folly.
Thank you for the many messages from those supporting their grandchildren’s teams from the sidelines, which, as I wrote here a few weeks ago, is a new experience for me. On Saturday ‘our’ football team suffered an 8-3 defeat. All part of the rich experience: learning how to lose as well as win. Which I hope I do.
I’m grateful to ‘very proud grandma’ Janet Harris for sending me this photo, which seems to sum up the joy that sport brings to our children
I’m grateful to ‘very proud grandma’ Janet Harris for sending me this photo, which seems to sum up the joy that sport brings to our children, with William, Sam and James rested and ready for action, and little Rose looking on. Thanks to Tom, their father, for permission to share. Let me know about your experiences watching and supporting the kids – games, goals, pitches, resources. And good luck to those supporting this weekend.
“Be careful,” I tell my daughter before she plays rugby and with infinite patience she always says “yes.”
Yet the risk lurks in the most unexpected places. She and her friends were watching England v Wales in a London pub last weekend when one of the TV screens fell off its bracket and crashed onto it.
As an apology, the pub offered them free Guinness for the rest of the afternoon. Sore heads in more ways than one.
