As West Ham United prepare for a season in the Championship, David Moyes is reminiscing about lifting the Europa Conference League trophy in Prague just three years ago.
The Hammers are backing Nuno Espirito Santo to lead the club back to the big time at the first attempt.
Yet, the fact that West Ham United are mapping out routes to Bristol, Birmingham and Bolton only three years after winning a European trophy reflects as badly on those currently at the helm as it does fondly on the David Moyes era.
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David Moyes remembers West Ham United’s Conference League triumph
Moyes was speaking opposite his former Everton sensation Wayne Rooney for BBC Football this week.
Looking back now, the Scot can better appreciate the seismic nature of that achievement. One he now ranks higher than all his others in football, from taking Everton to the Champions League and an FA Cup final to earning the chance to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
“I promise if I get the chance to win another trophy, I will have improved my dancing!” Moyes laughs, his stiff-hipped jig at the Fortuna Arena enough to get all Hammers fans misty eyed. “That’s what I’m going to try and do.”
“But look, Wayne, you know you’ve been fortunate enough to be a winner. I’ve won other things as a young player. I won the [Scottish] Premier League with Celtic and different things in one or two other leagues through my career.
“But I think to win a European trophy is something different, you know? And actually, the Conference League has given a level of football clubs a chance,” he says in the week in which Crystal Palace defeated Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig.
“I think when the name first came out, people were saying, ‘You know, I don’t want to be in that Conference League, that sounds rubbish.’ But the truth is, I think everybody would like a go at it. You can see Chelsea won it last year, you’ve now got Crystal Palace in it this year, and we won it the season before.”
When asked if winning the trophy was ‘the best moment in your career as a manager’, Moyes said;
What do YOU make of Joe Cole’s claims that West Ham snubbed Mourinho? 😵💫
“Yeah. I probably didn’t realise it until, strangely, after it. I think, in some ways, as a manager [winning a European trophy] does change how you’re seen or how you’re perceived. I don’t necessarily believe it should be that, of course, but I think in some ways it does.
“And look, I’m jealous of the serial winners who keep winning trophies.”
In the five seasons since the tournament was created, three English clubs have emerged victorious in the Conference League. Three London clubs, funnily enough.
The other two victors are Olympiakos in 2024 and Jose Mourinho’s Roma in 2022.
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