Kevin Nolan has returned to West Ham to join David Moyes’ coaching staff along with England coach Paul Nevin, the club confirmed. Nolan had played for the east London club from 2011 to 2016 and captained the club as they won back to back promotions to the premier league in 2011/12.
David Moyes said: “We welcome Kevin and Paul to the Club and look forward to working with them. Both have a wealth of experience in the game and I’m sure they will make a very positive contribution between now and the end of the season. Kevin obviously knows the club very well having played here previously, while Paul’s coaching pedigree is excellent. It has taken some time to finalise the coaching staff, but I wanted to make sure I brought in the right people to help us, and both Kevin and Paul are fantastic additions. They will get working right away and we are all completely focused on the job we need to do in the coming weeks and months.”
In an era of huge backroom staff coming with each new manager, David Moyes did not have his coaching team with him since he has taken over at West Ham and would be relieved to get more assistance now as they fight to stay in the premier league.
David Moyes feels that Declan Rice is the best holding midfielder in England and admitted that West Ham’s problems on and off the pitch may mean that the 21-year-old may leave in the summer. Rice has played every single minute of this premier league match this season and has been one of the only bright spots in an otherwise poor season for the Hammers.
David Moyes said: “In my mind he is arguably the best holding midfield player in the country and the best thing about Declan is he will get better,” said Moyes, who also worked with Rice during his first spell as West Ham manager. “Declan is carrying a lot of the team at the moment and he’s the one who will carry on from Mark Noble when it comes to an end for him. Quite often when building a club you have to sell. I hope it’s not the case with Declan but I said the same with Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott [at Everton]. But the team got better because we were able to sign the right players to replace them. If that ever came around [Rice leaving] I’d hope we’d be able to do the same here as well.”
Many big clubs were interested in the West Ham midfielder last year but could not match a massive £70 million valuation that West Ham made for their midfielder. They would be aware that they may be forced to sell him in order to raise funds to rebuild the squad in the upcoming summer.
West Ham captain and club legend, Mark Noble spoke about how impressive he was with the club’s latest signing Jarrod Bowen in training thus far. The Hammers signed the 23-year-old attacker From Hull City on transfer deadline day for around £22 million. Bowen had scored 16 goals and provided seven assists in the 29 matches for the Tigers.
Mark Noble said ” Jarrod has been training and he looks really good. I am hoping he will bring goals, enthusiasm, energy and hunger. Jarrod’s goalscoring record at Hull was second-to-none and that’s why we’ve bought him. But even in training, I could see that he gets after the ball as well, and I love seeing that. It doesn’t happen anywhere near as much as it used to, apart from at the top teams, so you don’t get accustomed to seeing it any longer so, when I saw him doing it, I thought ‘Yes! He wants it!’ and it was nice to see.”
Manager David Moyes has been criticised off late for not dropping his out of form star player, Sebastien Haller. The former Eintracht Frankfurt striker cost the club £45 million but has only found the back of the net six times this season.