David Moyes
For the final time this season is Lukasz Fabainaski’s knee okay?
I don’t know yet. We will see, I don’t think it’s quite as bad as we thought at the time but whether he is available to play will genuinely be a last-minute call really.
You know what you need to do on Sunday, one point means qualification for the Europa League. How significant would that point be?
It would be great if we could. We’ve got a game we have to overcome and we have to try and win it, that’s the aim, we want to try and finish on a high, and do our job we’ve got ourselves in pole position we have to try and win it will be a tough game I’m sure of that.
You will have 10,000 West Ham fans back in the stadium what does that mean to you?
It is great especially with the situation we are in and bringing them back to a real positive team who have played well and who have put in some brilliant performances and effort throughout the season. It is fitting that the players get the chance to be cheered and they deserve to be for how well they have performed this season.
West Ham fans will be getting to see Jesse Lingard and wondering whether it might be the last time can you say anything about Jesse’s future beyond this season?
No, I couldn’t see any more than that. I’m hopeful that in some way that Jesse chooses that he might want to come here, but we don’t know that’s down to Manchester United at the end of the time. He has been really good for us and it’s been a positive signing and good news for us since he started in January when we brought him in.
It is the end of the season, what are your outstanding memories of this season, some reflections on outstanding matches and who is your Hammer the year?
I’ve had so many good memories this year. We started the season not so well but I had COVID at one point and it was great to see the staff doing a brilliant job they were terrific. Watching them win away at Leicester was a big result for us at the early part of the season, it gave us a lot of confidence, we came from behind at Tottenham to get a draw when it didn’t look likely. I have good memories going and winning at Goodison this year and Elland Road which are really tough, tough games to win so we had really, really great moments. We beat Tottenham here in the league as well, which was was really important, so every sort of game has had a level of importance but probably the bit which I’ve enjoyed more than anything is the level of consistency shown, especially through the real sort of difficult time, January, February, lots of games. So I’ve had lots of good moments and the players have done a really good job.
Who is your Hammer of the season?
I’ve got too many. I think this year we’ve had so many perform at a high level, it really has been. It’s the first time we have got players with more than ten goals and it is something we need to do even better, but I think we’ve got a couple of players on ten goals this year, which has been good. And I hope that they can increase that before the end of Sunday.
If you get the point you need to finish sixth on Sunday that will be the highest West Ham have ever finished in the Premier League. So where do you think the club can now go from here?
I said to the players a few weeks back the club record was 62 points for the best season in the Premier League and we have now equalled that. We’ve got a chance on our own right to beat that and we have to try and do that. And we know that if we can beat that, then it will not only beat the record but it’ll also give us something else, which is European football if we can do that. So I’m really hopeful that we can get there but I’m not taking a thing for granted, I’m really not. I’m trying to get the players recovered quickly get them ready with the game on Wednesday night and I’m trying to get them as fresh as I possibly can. This is the third game in a week, not just for our club but for all clubs, and it’s been a big achievement getting to where we are but if we really want to do it, then we’ve got to see the job out.
West Ham are unbeaten in the last six Premier League games against Southampton, last time it finished goalless, what did you learn that day?
What I learned last time against Southampton were a really good team and are a good team. They were up near the top of the league and had a period where they went top of the league actually. So we went there knowing that we were going to have to play well and that was a good night for us because we drew would have liked to have won but we drew. And it was also an important point. Then, I just think that Ralph Hasenhuttl who’s got a really good style of play, I think they’ve been a good team to watch, some very good players in the team so we need to improve, but I think we have improved greatly since then so I’m hoping that we still have got enough energy in the tank come Sunday.
And this past year it’s been difficult for everyone, and everyone’s actually had time to reflect and reassess their lives, what have you learned about yourself as a manager over the past year?
I don’t know if I could say that any one thing would come out, just this year for everybody having a good time together, good communication. Trying to understand everybody’s families are in difficult situations. You have to think about the players who have not been able to travel home to Spain or France or where they are from not seeing their parents, maybe not seeing some of the family for a long time. So you’ve had to try and make sure that you’ve made them feel as happy and in feeling that coming in and working has been correct. I think that most of them done really well but I hope you all get a good holiday now. They all deserve it because it’s been a really long year and I’ve got to see the amount of games we’ve had pushed in, try to appease last year and squeeze it in this year has made a really difficult, difficult programme for everybody.
It was the premiere of Sir Alex Ferguson’s film last night. What was the best piece of advice he ever gave you?
I am looking forward to seeing the film. Sir Alex was very good to me when I went to Manchester United, we had many conversations, prior to that. And also, we’ve had many run-ins as well if you want to know because he was desperate to win and always showed that. He gave me advice quite often on when I was quite a young manager. I went to his office a couple of times for a bit of advice on taking some jobs which have been getting offered in some big clubs when I was at Preston North End and he kept on saying to me ‘No, don’t go there son, that is not a good enough club. I’m not going to name the clubs! He would say ‘don’t go there.’ He understood more than I did at the time as I was a young coach, but I think he’s somebody being Scottish who is admired greatly – admired everywhere – but admired when you’re Scottish and we’ve had managers like Jock Stein and Sir Alex Ferguson and Bill Shankly and you name it, we’ve had some great, great managers come out of Scotland, and obviously Sir Alex is up there with the best.
