West Ham assistant coach Paul Nevin has lifted the lid on the David Moyes speech that inspired the European triumph.
West Ham are European champions. A sentence we will never tire of writing, reading or hearing.
And Hammers fans are going to make sure everyone hears about it when they belt out ‘We know what we are’ across the country next season.
At one stage, though, owing to West Ham’s dreadful Premier League form, the elation we are experiencing this summer seemed a pipe dream.
Especially for David Moyes given how close he came on more than one occasion to being sacked.
The Hammers board stuck by the Scot, though. And he repaid their faith by leading West Ham to their first trophy in 43 years and first major European silverware since 1965.
West Ham assistant coach Paul Nevin lifts the lid on David Moyes speech that inspired European triumph
West Ham had to live with the added pressure of being joint tournament favourites through the Europa Conference League campaign.
But the likes of AZ Alkmaar and Fiorentina were no pushovers by any means.
After the heartache of losing to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League semi-finals the season before, West Ham knew the pain they would experience all too well had they exited this year’s European adventure before the final.
We’ve all seen the brilliant dressing footage of Moyes and his players celebrating both the semi-final and final triumphs.
Fans have been wondering what the manager may have said to rally his troops for the big occasions.
Well now we know.
Because West Ham assistant coach Paul Nevin has lifted the lid on the Moyes speech that inspired our European triumph.
‘It was quiet and the manager spoke…’
Speaking in a lengthy interview with The Athletic, Nevin says Moyes inspired his West Ham players by referring back to that Frankfurt agony.
“Moyes always makes a pre-match speech but, before the Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against AZ Alkmaar, he made sure it had a deeper meaning,” The Athletic reports after the conversation with Nevin.
“It was quiet and the manager said, ‘Remember how it felt when we exited at this point last season’,” Nevin said.
“He said, ‘We can’t let that happen this time; no matter what, we have to get the result over the two legs’.
“We needed to learn lessons from last season. We said before we went out on the pitch, we didn’t want to have those feelings again. We can’t let that moment go. The manager felt he’s put so much into winning it, plus the fans, we felt it was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. We felt we had the ability and talent to reach the final.”
Not only reach it but win it and in doing so seal their place as West Ham legends.
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