Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has brilliantly dissected the situation surrounding David Moyes at West Ham and he clearly gets it.
Speculation continues to swirl over whether David Moyes will sign a new contract at West Ham.
There is unrest among a section the club’s fanbase over the manager.
So West Ham’s owners are approaching a major crossroads in the coming months.
There was a sense of deja vu when some West Ham fans held banners and signs aloft demanding ‘Moyes Out’ after the defeat at Forest.
Media critical of fans in defence of Moyes
The manager was greeted by an identical sign at Fulham around the same time last year.
Indeed some have suggested it is the same banner, which has been tucked away in a fan’s drawer since ‘just in case’.
As a result West Ham fans had been painted in a certain light by a large section of the press in the lead up to the first win of 2024 over Brentford.
Ungrateful, deluded, fickle, clueless, unrealistic, you name it Hammers supporters have been called it of late.
Carragher gets it but slams Hammers banner minority
Fans calling for a different style or a change of manager to one with a more modern, attacking philosophy have been pilloried by many for having the temerity to want a better quality of football.
Moyes has spoken out in defence of his record, telling fans they’ve never had it so good.
Many believe the time has come for a mutual parting of the ways this summer.
And leading Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher is one of them.
Carragher agrees with fed-up West Ham fans over the style of play. But he feels banners have been ‘bang out of order’ on a man who has ‘given you the best night of your life’.
Dissecting the situation brilliantly on Sky Sports, Carragher said he totally understands the frustrations of fans over Moyes’ style of play.
Carragher: ‘Time has come for Moyes to leave West Ham’
And he feels Moyes is causing friction with his comments and must leave this summer.
Sky Sports anchor Dave Jones spotted that Moyes went straight down the tunnel after the win over Brentford.
And Carragher says the time has come for Moyes and West Ham to go their separate ways. Indeed he points out better managers than the Scot have lost their jobs over style of play.
“He’s been West Ham’s best manager in the Premier League era and that over a four or five year period is a great piece of work for the manager,” Carragher said on Sky Sports’ MNF.
“For me David Moyes is a top Premier League manager. I think he’s proven that now at two football clubs. He’s taken Everton and West Ham – two clubs who feel that they maybe should be in a position where they’re challenging for Europe. Everton at the time were fighting relegation, West Ham when he came in were fighting relegation. He’s now brought both of those clubs into Europe where (you ask) can they get much higher? Tough for them, whoever they bring in.
“That proves what David Moyes’ skill set is. He takes big football clubs who feel they should be higher in the table from the bottom half of the table into the European places. So I think that’s a great job he’s done.
“I think the style is a problem, I do. And I totally get where West Ham supporters are coming from. Because I feel now the style of football David Moyes plays at West Ham is almost moving out of football. We’ve seen better managers than David Moyes lose their jobs on their style. Managers who have won trophies (like) Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Rafa Benitez – they’re almost like the top managers of this style of play.
“The reason I accept and understand and am totally with what the West Ham supporters’ frustration is, I think the football we’re watching now in the Premier League the only way a supporter accepts a team who sit back, play on the counter attack, wait for set pieces, is a team fighting relegation.
“West Ham are not a team right now who should be thinking about fighting relegation. You mentioned the actual spend as well (£250m net), this is a team with real attacking players. So I get the style concept…
“I want to start with the banner. I think that’s bang out of order the banner. This is a guy who has given you the best night you’ve ever had in your footballing life for 43 years and that European night, the trips that they’ve been on, they’re still in Europe by the way, they’re some of the greatest nights West Ham fans will have. And it’s not just about the football, it’s about going away with your mates, the trips, the memories, the things you got up to, brilliant nights.
“As I said that night they had, the best night since 1980, who knows how long it will be until they win another trophy. The banner, listen forget that, he deserves a lot more respect than that David Moyes. But for me I totally get where the fans are coming from. They want to go to the game and think ‘we’re going to be on the front foot, we’ve got (Lucas) Paqueta, we’ve got (Mohammed) Kudus, why are we sitting back, why are we accepting not even the biggest teams in the world coming to West Ham and dominating like Brighton or other teams that have come up at different times’.
“I actually think it’s better for all parties if they part ways. I’ve said David Moyes has done a brilliant job there. But at the end of the season for me I think if there’s unrest in the crowd and Moyes is not sure whether they’re with him, you don’t need to be getting to October next year and it becomes toxic at that place. He deserves better than that, he’s done a brilliant job at West Ham but the time has come for David Moyes to move on in the summer…
“There’s been obviously banners in the crowd, you think of the game at Forest, so I think he’d have been coming into the game with a little bit of trepidation about the feeling maybe in the stadium.
“To win, but win the way they did – score four goals, exciting, Bowen gets the hat-trick, great goal from Emerson – it was a big night for David Moyes. And listen we highlighted a lot the great job he’s done but we also understand the frustration of the supporters in terms of the style of play.
“So you play at home, you score four goals, win in that way – some great goals as well – I think it was a great night all round for West Ham but more importantly David Moyes because if he is to leave at the end of the season or stay who knows, you wouldn’t want to go out on a bad, negative run. Hopefully for him and West Ham this is the start of getting back into form. Where they are in the table is still a great position for West Ham…
“There’s no doubt that sometimes David Moyes will come out with a line (about being in a good position for West Ham) and when you look at history of West Ham’s time in the Premier League they are a team who at times can be dragged down to the bottom, at times can come close to Europe and more often than not are probably somewhere in between that. So I think what David Moyes is saying is that in the main, in the Premier League, if West Ham are in the top half of the table, it’s a decent season.
“But on the back of West Ham moving from Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium, 60,000 people, we talk about the money that’s been spent as well, the quality of player that they’ve got now – Paqueta is a player who Manchester City basically wanted to sign in the summer. So that’s where there might be a little bit of friction between supporters and what David Moyes is saying because as we said last week with Crystal Palace – every set of supporters always wants to feel like the club is looking to push on and move on.
“So West Ham (fans) don’t want to accept ‘we’re just a a top half club’. But they haven’t just been a top half club with David Moyes, they’ve been in Europe.”
A journalist has exclusively revealed to Hammers News the only way Moyes will remain manager of West Ham next season.
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