Money is irrelevant because Newcastle stars were ‘write-offs’ before Eddie Howe arrived says West Ham boss David Moyes.
There has been the usual managerial love-in ahead of West Ham’s trip to face Newcastle United on Saturday evening.
Magpies boss Howe has already said West Ham were right to stick by ‘perfect’ Moyes and hailed the club’s recruitment despite the dismal Premier League season the Hammers are enduring.
Now Moyes has waxed lyrical about Howe and what he has done at Newcastle too.
While Newcastle have gone from relegation candidates to Champions League hopefuls in the last year and made their first cup final since 1999, the Hammers have been the polar opposite.
Many put that down to newly-minted Newcastle’s vast Saudi riches.
But Moyes feels there is much more to it than that and believes there are similarities between what he had done at West Ham to the job Howe is doing at Newcastle.
The money is irrelevant because some Newcastle stars were ‘write-offs’ before Howe arrived says West Ham boss Moyes.
“I really hope it’s not to do with spending money,” Moyes said in his pre-match press conference.
“I’d love to think football was not to do with spending money but if you are looking at, and I say this with real respect, I think I mentioned this the other week, I think some of the Newcastle players for a few years people saw them as complete write-offs and not good enough to be at the club.
“Some of them they’ve turned that round. Now that can be down to the players as individuals, it can be down to the manager, it can be down to the playing staff, it can be down to lots of reasons. But it does go to prove that if you keep working at it, stick at it, challenge it, don’t give up then you can get something.
“Obviously Newcastle have had a huge boost, the football club’s had a huge boost and I think about us as West Ham when we came in at West Ham, sort of pulling together the fans and the directors and the players and everybody together going in one direction, I think that’s the way Newcastle look at the moment.
“It’s been pulled together, players are doing so well, they’ve picked a good manager who probably at the start folk were saying you’re only going to be there a short time and then they’ll bring someone else in. Looks as if he’s easily settled in to the job and rightly so. And you look at the players who weren’t performing for them, a lot of similarities to what we’ve been like at West Ham over the last couple of years. I have to give them praise, they’re a good side to watch as well Newcastle at the moment.”
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