If David Moyes can take any consolation from his meeting with Jesse Marsch on Wednesday evening, it’s that the American can probably sympathise with him better than anyone. He knows all about trying to work in an environment where all around you, people are screaming for Marcelo Bielsa to be given your job.
“I’ve had great support from David Sullivan and the board,” Moyes insisted ahead of his side’s trip to Leeds on Wednesday evening. “I think West Ham supporters have been incredibly supportive.”
That support is wearing thin quickly, not least because the turning of the year has given pause for reflection. This time in January 2022, the club was on the cusp of the greatest season of overachievement in its history. They were seventh, daring to talk of a top-four finish, their FA Cup run looked promising, and as late as April, they were 180 minutes away from reaching a first European final in nearly half a century.
It should have been a time when Moyes’s burgeoning relationship with West Ham’s co-owners flourished. Instead, it brought the first signs of fracture as he pleaded for January activity to pull a stretched squad over the line. He didn’t get it, and West Ham went the entire winter window without signing a senior player. The only addition they did make was Callum Marshall, who joined the Academy on a scholarship as a teenager from Linfield.
Yet these recruitment issues run deeper than one window without buying players – their net spend is among the highest in the Premier League, with only Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea hemorrhaging more over the past five years.
In the summer, Moyes was handed £160m, which was largely spent on forwards who don’t score goals. As a result, his side sit above the relegation zone only on goal difference after five defeats in a row, in their lowest position at this stage of the season since 2017-18, just after Slaven Bilic had been sacked.
They are – but for the memories of famous European nights and a few million pounds in Premier League prize money – essentially back where they started when he took over – nearly always a sign that it’s the end of the road.
There are plenty of reasons why the fans have lost patience. These are not a delusional group who are content with misguided ownership, but the ill feeling towards Gold&Sullivan does not give managers a free pass either.
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Emerson and Flynn Downes have also struggled for minutes. What that says about the disconnect between Moyes’s plans and West Ham’s recruitment may only emerge after he has gone. He either does not know where to put these players, or does not think he should be playing them at all.
Moyes’s justification for those ill-fitting signings has been to compare everyone to Erling Haaland. “I remember the last two years, everyone was saying we needed back up to Mick [Antonio],” he reasoned. “We had a list of strikers and a lot of the ones you are on about are at other clubs. Other than Haaland, there’s a lot that haven’t quite hit the heights that have been expected.”
He has pleaded for patience with Gianluca Scamacca, a £35.5m addition from Sassuolo who has contributed two league goals. “It can take time for players to settle in England,” he said. “It might just take him a little bit longer, he’s had a couple of injuries.” These are not bad players. Lucas Paqueta was a regular for Brazil at the World Cup. Nayef Aguerd shone in Morocco’s march to the semi-finals.
Even the better players who were already there are flailing. Tomas Soucek, once the anchor of this midfield, has been badly off form. Only Nottingham Forest and Wolves have scored fewer goals as a team, and no one other than Said Benrahma has registered more than three all season.
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Even their most prolific creative player this season, Benrahma, has seen his goals and assists drop from 0.58 per 90 minutes to 0.39 this term. Outside the bottom three, it means only Bournemouth have worse goal difference, and that is still being skewed by the Cherries’ 9-0 defeat to Liverpool in August.
Declan Rice remains a ticking time bomb, who openly courted a move away while on England duty in Qatar. Moyes had to bat away criticisms of his body language from fans, responding simply: “I don’t see it.” Things will only get harder when the midfielder goes, whether that is sooner or later, and there feels little prospect of them getting better either.
The demise of Vladimir Coufal and Mark Noble’s move upstairs signify an era that has been and gone. Targets like Aaron Wan-Bissaka seem unattainable, Marcus Thuram is almost guaranteed to get a better offer. Noble is a popular appointment as sporting director but not an experienced one.
That leaves Moyes stuck with what he has – and it’s not a lot he is happy with. Rice, Bowen and Lukasz Fabianski are the only ever-presents in his XI. Little wonder he has started talking about his time in east London in the past tense. “I only want the best for West Ham, it’s been a great club for me.” He at least believes he can depend on his close relationship with Sullivan, which explains why the board have been so reluctant to part with him again.
After Leeds, two more away games follow which could soon make it a formality.
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