Forum | General Discussion

Hammers 'destroyed' fellow claret & blue wearers Aston Villa on what was David Moyes' 999th games as a manager, although the final score line rather flatters the Irons, it was still a comprehensive clinical victory over what was ten men for the bulk of the 2nd half at Villa Park, we'll get to the 'ten men' later!

Amusingly there are still pundits like Danny Mills who effuse on a daily basis about how Hammers owners would find it hard to turn down a £100 Million offer for Declan Rice, get with the times Danny Boy, even another £50 Million wouldn't be enough!

There are some who say Villa didn't deserve to go down to ten men, there are others who say they were lucky to keep ten men on the pitch! The 'soft red' given for preventing an obvious goal scoring opportunity as Jarrod Bowen raced through on goal was initially deemed a yellow card offence, however on being checked by VAR it became a red.

What is astounding is that the yellow/red card WAS debatable, but the pre-cursor to that foul was the Forearm Smash received by Pablo Fornals which warranted a straight red card for violent conduct all day long, EVEN Dean Smith the Villa manager referenced that point!

David Moyes will take charge of his ONE THOUSANDTH GAME on Thursday as Hammers take on a rejuvenated Genk in Belgium, to be swiftly followed by his 1001'st game against his old Mersey side rivals Liverpool. Of course given the limited resources available to Moyes, the wheels WILL come off the wagon at sometime as he balances pursuing success on all four fronts, but for now just enjoy it!

Whether they admit it or not publicly, privately many of Hammers London rivals ARE looking enviously at what David Moyes has achieved since his 'resurrection' and wondering how a 'washed up' manager could turn a bunch of disparate players who were in a desperate situation into a Premier League force to be reckoned with.

Well children, if you eat your 'green streets' like you were told to do, Santa might just pay you a visit, or at least send one of his saints! - Ed - Oh come on, everbody knows 'there ain't no such thing as a 'sanity' clause don't they?

PS: (Q) Can you name the Villa player who should be up for next year's Oscars AND the floor display in the Gymnastics at the Olympics? (A) Marvelous Nakamba of course, never have we seen quite so many rolls and flips, even a half pike when a player has been 'injured'! Asolutely Marvelous ...

When asked to appraise his team's current form David Moyes said: “It makes me feel really good because I’ve always said I want to be the best and the hardest team to play against – when teams don’t enjoy playing me. When I was brought up at Celtic, it was always about winning, first and foremost. Then it was about winning with style, and then when you get a good style, they wanted lots of goals. So I feel like my whole background has been in that. “But when you don’t always have the best players and not always the best, maybe way of playing, then I have to find a way of winning. At the moment, I am really fortunate. I have a talented group of players; we’ve brought in some players who have helped that. So I feel we are playing a good style. I want us to be attacking and entertaining, but I also want to be defensive and ruthless when we have to be.”

Having done the 'hard yards' as a youngster, Moyes is well placed to understand exactly how to bring on youth players, a trait that he has exploited throughout his managerial career. At West Ham he has made his own good fortune through a combination of excellent planning and a lot of hard work on the training ground, his ideas being implemented by his superb coaching assistants.

An added bonus for all the hard work and attention to detail is the extraordinary amount of seriously good young players emerging from the Academy, AT ALL levels! Moyes will obviously still be looking in the transfer market for players, but he WILL utilise the youth players at EVERY given opportunity when possible. This will save the club an enormous amount of money in the future, but more importantly it gives fans something to believe in, and not just in 'one of our own', we're talking about more like FIVE of our own and counting! - Ed

David Moyes has transformed West Ham in just under two years, from relegated threatened battlers to a team with genuine top six aspirations and with an eye on the top four! Chasing success on FOUR different fronts requires a lot of careful man management, a feat that Moyes is coping with rather well at the moment.

As a consequence of now being referenced as 'high flying hammers', the pressure is on to maintain the club's upward trajectory, part of the pressure is to select teams that are capable of (a) getting a result, but also (b) of providing entertaining football for the club's burgeoning fan base both domestically and globally.

Having seen imperious displays by Alphonse Areola and Issa Diop playing for Hammers B team, or the Manchester United away team as it is now more commonly known, there has been a clamour for both of these superb players to be included in Moyes starting line up to play Villa this Sunday afternoon.

We are talking about a totally new and unique situation for long suffering Hammers fans, one in which they suddenly have a thoroughly decent first team as well as an incredibly competent B team and even a good C team! Of course with having so many good players at his disposal David Moyes needs to tread carefully, but this group he has assembled ARE NOT prima-donnas, they are a team.

With all that said, expect few if ANY changes to last Sunday's starting line up in the victory over Tottingham, perhaps Vlad the Impaler will replace Ben Johnson? Although Johnson has performed magnificently while deputising for the Czech International who was, 'taken out' during one of Hammers rare defeats this term.

It should be remembered that the club travel to play Genk in Belgium of Thursday for their EUEFA Europa League Cup game ahead of a 'mighty clash' against Liverpool at the weekend. - Ed