David Moyes
West Ham United boss David Moyes believes that the club are currently in the midst of “quite a big transition” in the summer transfer window. Moyes sees the competition as a real chance to bed in the six new signings and any potential other new recruits into the club, but does admit that while the Premier League side is yet to change all that much, it soon will and the club will have to make some big decisions over current players, who the Scottish boss feels have deteriorated in quality from their performances from as recently as 12 to 18 months ago.
David Moyes said: “Much better and that is why I actually see it as being a positive. I think, and yous are the ones who are going to watch a lot of us and you are going to write a lot about us over the year, we are in quite a big transition. You might be looking at the team and saying it is the same team as last year, but we are in a period where we are trying to introduce one or two news ones. We are bringing in new players and you can probably see, if you are being honest, maybe some of the players who have been here are maybe not quite the same as they were even a year ago/a year and a half ago, so we’ve got to look at that as well and decide when the changeover time is. We’ve got a little bit of that going on, but we’ve got to try and keep it going and keep hanging in while we’re maybe not quite ready.”
Former Swansea City midfielder and Brentwood-born prospect Downes was signed in the summer but has only made two cameo roles for the club to date during home meetings against Manchester City and Viborg. Moyes is keen to get Downes a game when the time is right, but admits that in Europe, while he is keen to use his squad, rotate and give minutes to players who need them, his priority will be to get a result, even if it means fielding stronger teams than he would have liked to.
David Moyes added: “I think we need to give him a bit of time. As I said, he would have played if it wasn’t for his toe. The things I’ve seen of him, he needs to do better and we’re already [working at that] but we’ll get him a game when we can. All the players have to earn it and I have to find a way of winning most of the games. If it takes me putting the better players out to win, well I want to win. I’m not putting the boys out just to lose and say ‘I’m giving them a game.’ I want to win the games.”
