What is your reaction to being drawn against AEK Larnaca in the Europa Conference League?
I think when you get to the later stages in any cup competition, it’s always going to be difficult. I think the most important thing is that we won the group, we won all of the games in the group which gives us the chance of being at home in the second leg, so hopefully, that will go to our advantage. It’s a fair trip to Cyprus, but one we’re looking forward to. We’re looking forward to being in the competition and we’ll do our best to stay in it as long as we can.
Is it a nice reminder of what can still be up for grabs this season?
Yes, I think you have to remember how successful the players have been over the last couple of years. Semi-final of European football last year and finishing sixth, last year finishing seventh and in the Conference League this year. I’ve got to be honest and say we’ve done pretty well in the games as well, we’ve played well and we’ve won the group which is never easy to do.
Is it a positive distraction away from your Premier League form?
The Premier League will always be hugely important, I always use the words your bread and butter for the Premier League. That’ll be the case. Being in Europe is a great thrill, it’s great for the supporters. We’ve had incredible crowds at the stadium for the games, we have taken a huge away support when we’ve gone and I am sure there will be a lot looking forward to going away to Cyprus for a few days as well.
Is this game against Nottingham Forest a classic six-pointer?
It is a really big game, because all of the games have always been big in the Premier League, so wherever you play, first game or last game, they’re always big. There’s still a lot to play, but they’re getting bigger because there are not as many as there were at the start. We played Nottingham Forest in the opening [away] game of the season, was incredibly tight game, things on the day maybe didn’t go quite for us, so we’ve got to hope we can turn that around and pick up these three points.
What have you seen from the players in training this week?
Fully committed, totally focussed on the job, really good professionals. Now, they are the ones who cross the white line and they have to show that in the games so we’re looking forward to getting it underway and seeing what they can produce.
Have you had a chance to speak to the owners and map out the rest of this season?
I speak to David Sullivan quite regularly. The first thing is we want to make sure we can climb the table as quickly as we can. We want to keep our run in Europe going and we’re going to try and do that, we’re going to try and keep our going in the FA Cup run going as well. There’s a lot of things we want to do. We are going to have to keep improving, let’s hope we can do that.
What is your reaction following the death of former commentator John Motson this week?
Quite often, when you come in this business, I always say how amazing it is that quite regularly, you meet people and the journalists that I have been involved with since I started at Preston North End, there’s a lot of them still working in radio or tv or doing something else. Actually, John Motson was another one of them. John Motson, when I was coming up from Preston and got to Everton, John Motson was around and I started to get to know him a little bit better. It was only last night I was listening to his commentary of the Ronnie Radford goal for Hereford because it’s one of the goals I’ve always remembered as a young boy more than any. If you talk to me about FA Cup goals, that is always one that sticks out in my mind. I only realised that when it was his commentary. At the time, I had never really thought about it, I was more thinking about the goal. He’s someone that everyone in football respected and admired and sadly, we’ve lost him. We pass our best wishes to his family.
David Sullivan recently spoke out about the white paper and the governance in football. What do you think about it?
I’d like to have a chance to read the paper to see what the government have brought to the table before I have any comment on it. I have been in football for a long time as a manager and as a player and the football has been brilliant here, brilliant in this country. Yes, there’s maybe a lot of things we don’t quite get exactly right, but if you ask any other country what they were thinking about our football, they would be gloating over it. I’ll be interested to see what the paper says, but I can’t comment on it yet as I have not had a chance to read it or see it yet.
Do you think this is the toughest the Premier League has been?
I can’t answer your question directly, or the way you’ve put it, but I think over the years I’ve had in the Premier League I’ve seen some unbelievable teams, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team with Manchester United and then trying to go and win at Arsenal, when Arsenal had a great team under Arsene Wenger. I look at the Man City teams that have been built over the years. I think it’s very difficult. What I will say and what I do think about the Premier League now, I think there’s less disparity between the 12 or 14 clubs, there’s very little between it. Last year for the last two years, we’ve been competing at the top end of the league, this year we’re seeing a really good Fulham, Brentford and Brighton teams are competitive for European football, certainly Newcastle United. It might mean where we’re going to have a situation where that might be chopping and changing, but it’s always been very difficult to break into the top four or the top six in the main. That’s why our past two years breaking into the top six really has been such a big achievement.
Do you think Danny Ings deserves a start and it’s time for a start for him?
I think that Danny Ings is getting fit now. He got an injury in his first game after 30 seconds and I really look through our injuries this season, it’s been quite incredible really. I don’t want to dwell too much on injuries, but we’ve had some difficulty with injuries right from the start of this season. From Nayef Aguerd getting injured in a pre-season friendly to Craig Dawson in pre-season, we had injuries right from the start. Getting Danny fit now is really important to us. I want Danny to get chances to show exactly why we’ve brought him.
You have only won one away league game all season, does that add pressure onto your home games to try and make the most of them?
It does, but I think when you’ve had six out of eight away from home, then you start to put things a little bit more into perspective, because that tells you then if we’ve only one won, it’s telling you we’ve not not been winning an awful lot. The truth is, we’ve been away from home that much. If you look at this month and you look at the way things are going, we’re away to Manchester United and then our first game in Europe is away as well, we’ve had an incredible amount of away games in this period.
Were you surprised to see Southampton and Bournemouth win away from home last weekend?
Not surprised, because I think the Premier League has got that in it. We all have our big results on our day still to come and I’ve got no doubt we will win a couple of big games away from home.
Are you looking at this game as a must-win with not many home games against bottom-half sides to come?
I’m looking as far forward as what you have done, I’m looking forward to the next game and that’s Nottingham Forest. We have to try and win against Forest. It’s hugely key that we try and win that game. Our home in the last two games, we drew with Chelsea, we beat Everton, the other six of the last eight have been away from home. Hopefully, we can try and stay positive in our home form.
Despite all of the talk of pressure on you, you do not look like you are under pressure?
I think all managers are under pressure, I think someone mentioned about the top teams and how their clubs have been performing. I think all managers have a level. To continue winning is a big thing, if you’re at the top you have to win, if you’re at the bottom you have to make sure you avoid the real bottom. I think you are right in saying we are under pressure, yes.
Is this a big opportunity for Danny Ings to make a big impression?
I think Danny Ings’ reputation speaks for itself, his goals he has scored at nearly all the clubs he has played for. I’m hoping that he can reproduce that here. Unfortunately, he picked up a bit of knee injury after 30 seconds of coming on (against Everton), so maybe we would’ve seen more of him so far. He’s getting closer to readiness and he’s settling in. We’ve got him here for a few years on a contract, so it’s not as if we have to get him out in the next two/three/four weeks, we have to make sure we have him ready to play for the next three/four years.
Do you think your last game against Nottingham Forest is a summary of your season and that you have not been able to recover since?
A lot of things you say are right. I was looking back at some of the clips, Kurt Zouma’s header kicked off the line in the 82nd minute, and I’m thinking to myself, my goodness, how did he get it off the line. Looking back, we missed a penalty kick in that game as well. Things like that certainly do. It’s well gone, so we’re not saying it’s got anything to do with it, but the point you make is a good one, that sometimes you need good fortune and on that day we didn’t get it. We’re at it now, I think we’re getting a little bit better, our mentality is better now so hopefully, we can pick up some more wins.
How much do you and the team need the home crowd to help you?
We need it, huge. I look at the crowds over the last two years, it’s been brilliant. I think we have got a capacity tomorrow against Nottingham Forest, we had it last week. 62,500. We have huge crowds coming to West Ham and that’s because over the years, they’ve seen good teams playing recently, we’ve got some really top players. We played Newcastle the other week and I look at their success and they’ve got an incredible crowd behind them at the moment. Sometimes when it’s going not so well, you really need your supporters with you as well. We need them with us and hopefully, everybody cheering the players on.
It has been 30 years since the death of Bobby Moore. What are your memories of him?
Obviously the people who have been connected with West Ham and supporters who have followed it and probably the older generation will know much more about Bobby Moore than I do. I’m actually having dinner with Trevor Brooking and I will ask Trevor a lot about Bobby. I was talking to Trevor last week, who was giving me a great insight. West Ham are still the only club to get an Englishman to lift the World Cup, it’s quite an achievement. We’ve talked a lot about the Premier League, we’ve talked about the players, we’ve talked about the managers who have been in it, so there’s a little bit of pride that West Ham have that legendary figure. I hope that tomorrow, certainly all of the legendary generation will remember him and new West Ham supporters will be getting told that by their parents or by people who will be sitting next to them at the game tomorrow.
