West Ham manager David Moyes has said he wants to turn the Hammers into regular European contenders the same he did when he was manager of Everton.
David Moyes said: “In my period we had a great time, we built the club up from probably a poor state and didn’t have a great deal of money to spend but I had a great chairman in Bill Kenwright who gave me all the encouragement and enthusiasm and backed me in everything I did.”
David Moyes added: “I’m looking at my time at Everton really fondly, but I’m also seeing West Ham in a similar situation and thinking could I do a similar job – regular European football, top of the league more often? So I’m hoping and thinking I can do that at West Ham as well.”
A win over Everton on Sunday will go a long way to securing European football of some kind for next season but that is not the extent of Moyes’ ambitions this season. The manager is determined to take the Champions League challenge down to the wire and compared West Ham’s run-in to the one he had with Everton when he led them to a fourth-placed Premier League finish.
David Moyes said: “I remember the year we qualified for the Champions League I remember the run-in quite well. I was going to say a comfortable-ish run-in but we had a couple of big games. One of them was Manchester United at home with three or four games to go. Duncan Ferguson scored and we won 1-0 and it was an enormous victory for us because we were getting pushed by Liverpool for fourth.”
That victory was against a European rival and helped see Everton over the line and Moyes is hoping his Hammers can do something similar this weekend.
David Moyes said: “At the end of the run-in, you have to win big games. That gives you the chance of making it. We’ve got a big game against Everton. I’m not saying that will get us in but it might go a bit towards answering what do you need to do in the run-in? You need to win some big games.”
