No Excuses..Bare Bones Baloney!

West Ham United's foray in the third tier of European Cup Football continues this evening with the first leg of the fixtures against AEK Larnaca in Cyprus. Although potential Hammers manager Jose Mourinho celebrated like there was no tomorrow when Roma won the ill conceived trophy last year, the truth is that it is a 'Micky Mouse 'Cup that was 'invented' solely as a revenue earner and has little real meaning in the great scheme of things.

Still a trophy is a trophy some might say, but at what cost? Sucking the life out of a whole generation of promising youth players or destroying the confidence of newly signed players is hardly the way forward is it? Yet that is exactly what is happeneing at the club under the current guidance of David Moyes.

Lured by the vague possibility of 'SilverWare' the club's hierarchy seem to have adopted a 'magpiesque' attitude that can only be satiated by something sparking, irrespective of it's true value! How long can Moyes dine out on the brief period of success that he attained following his 2nd coming?

Credit where it is due, Moyes took over when things looked bleak, saved the club from relegation and was then promptly dropped in favour of 'fancy pants' Manuel Pellegrini who took over and nearly took the club down in the process. Moyes returned and things looked to be moving forward on an upward trajectory, then the wheels started to fall off the Moyes bandwagon.

Moyes' intransigent attitude meant that the team were unable to build on their initial inertia and were soon being found out by opposition coaches and managers who began to realise what a 'one trick pony' Moyes actually was as a manager, as a consequence results started to falter before a continuous and inexorable decline began which has been impossible to halt, despite a relatively large investment in the squad, actually a MASSIVE investment in the squad compared to the past.

Moyes is GOOD at making square pegs fit round holes, but give him the 'right' combination and he falls short. Why is that? Quite simply he doesn't garner the respect he should receive from top players because he doesn't earn it! Bad mouthing players regarding their attitude is NOT the way forward, players like Said Benrahma who are naturally gifted don't respond well to someone who was a bang average defender in uncompetitive leagues handing down 'god like' advice.

Destroying players' confidence with his 'my way or the highway' approach WILL EVENTUALLY DESTROY team morale if it hasn't done already, nothing short of a managerial rebuild is required to bring the club back to the mythical 'West Ham Way', a style of football that may NOT get trophies but sent fans home happy after games with hope for the future.

The turgid 'product' on offer for fans is barely palpable and is so different from what fans have grown to expect over generations. David Moyes WAS a good fixer, but his repair job is over now and it is time to bring in a 'foundations' expert who is used to dealing with 'modern issuse', NOT someone who is stuck in the dark ages!

We don't profess to know all the answers, but we can see the obvious that is right in front of our eyes! We fully expect the team to do well in Cyprus, they won't have a critical crowd on their back, just like during Covid. The possible answer?...keep Moyes and play behind closed doors! - Ed