The West Ham fan backlash has begun - good luck, David Moyes, you're going to need it
The West Ham board made the bold decision to sack Manuel Pellegrini and bring back the manager they binned 18 months ago in Moyes
By
Matt Lawless
Head of Digital Sport
David Moyes is back at
West Ham. And the backlash on the board has already begun.
Before the Scot is paraded on New Year’s Day, many are already talking up a boycott. Lots are saying they won’t renew their season tickets. And almost everyone is pointing the problems of the club squarely at three people: David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady.
Shortly before the lights went out on the Boleyn Ground, ‘Mr West Ham’ made an emphatic statement to the supporters.
“This club ain’t run like a circus anymore.”
Fast forward three-and-a-half years and Mark Noble‘s message is now a meme. For all the wrong reasons.
Like it or not, struggling West Ham are the laughing stock of the Premier League - and their unpopular hierarchy are duly branded ‘clowns’ by the disgruntled masses.
Their quick-fire decision to reappoint Moyes on a one-and-a-half year deal has not gone down well at all with the disenfranchised East End faithful. Even former TOWIE star Mark Wright has had a pop on Twitter.
The former Manchester United boss was seemingly deemed not good enough for the job 18 months ago. Now he’s back.
For many ardent fans, it is the latest saga in a catalogue of errors since Sullivan and Gold completed their takeover of the club back in January 2010.
They promised grand dreams of Champions League football. Yet they were relegated.
They promised an elite stadium that would be viewed as one of the best in the world. Yet they delivered an athletics arena with temporary seating and scaffolding.
The list goes on. And the vitriol of discontent levelled towards them will inevitably rise again if Moyes fails to get off to a good start or, even worse, fails to keep the club in the Premier League.
And it won’t be easy either. The Hammers host fellow strugglers Bournemouth before playing Sheffield Utd (away), Everton (home), Leicester (away) and Liverpool (home) in January. That’s before facing Brighton at home and trips to Emirates Marketing Project and Liverpool in February.
On current form - just two wins in 13 league games - it’s hard to see where West Ham’s next victory will come from.
But they have opted for Moyes because he is the ‘safe’ option. He knows the club and he knows the players. The expectation is that he will pick up from where he left off.
That was a 13th place finish after inheriting a team in the drop zone.
This time round, West Ham are a point off the relegation places. Yet the task that awaits the 56-year-old boss certainly seems more daunting.
Moyes, for all his critics, is a good manager. He has 15 years of Premier League experience alone and should bring in a proven backroom set-up. He will want to run the rule over the current squad - a squad considered by many pundits at the start of the season to be capable enough of challenging the top six elite - before he looks at the market. An energetic midfielder who can provide a presence in the engine room will be the priority while an injection of pace is needed too.
For me, a West Ham season ticket holder, he is a good manager for a club like ours. I truly hope the fans will get behind him.
He just isn’t the type of “next level” manager the fans were promised they would get when they left for pastures new. And so, it is clear now more than ever before that their owners are running out of ideas. Bringing Moyes back smacks of absolute desperation. Relegation to the Championship is unfathomable.
‘Clowns’. ‘Clueless’. Those are just the printable phrases being used to describe the club’s owners by fed-up supporters on social media.
Whether the returning Moyes is a success or not, the majority of supporters have simply had enough of those running the club.
So, it begs the question: is it time for them to sell up?
In 10 years of ownership there has been a consistent pattern of failure. Managers have come and gone (and come back). Star players have sulked and left. Fans have rioted. And in 40 years the club has still not won a single trophy (sorry, but the Intertoto Cup doesn’t really count).
Until the structure changes from top to bottom, the circus will continue.
Right now it is one big joke. And the smiles are definitely not on West Ham faces.
Very best of luck to you, David Moyes. You will need it.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/west-ham-fan-backlash-began-21183407
