Good to sign off on the year against Watford after a couple of dodgy results?
I don’t know about dodgy but it was a great win, that’s for sure. I take your point it was a good win after a couple of games in which we didn’t get results.
Any new covid cases?
We don’t have any more numbers. It’s something you can’t really say because it changes every day. Like every club we’re completely unsure about what’s going to happen daily but at the moment as of today we’re pretty clear.
Played twice in 48 hours. Tuchel among others fuming about schedule. Do you have sympathy?
What I would say is I think the amount of fixtures if you’re a successful club is really tough. We’ve always played Christmas fixtures in this country. I’ve been a player, a manager. We know exactly what we’re getting .When you come to this country it’s very much part of it. But this Christmas with three games instead of two has added to a feeling of wait a minute. There’s just too many games. The clubs who have had European football, success in the cup competitions already and with another just around the corner – for a lot of those clubs, the managers feel players are being worked too hard.
Do you feel your players need a rest?
Yes, our players have had a busy schedule. We have to go along with it. I don’t like things like… unfortunately I’m not in it but I can’t understand why there are two leg Carabao Cup semi-finals. Things like that, we’re in a period where players feel neglected and not looked after. The authorities are giving them more games, less time and make it tougher but I’m not going to change it.
Two years yesterday since you came back. What are you most proud of?
What makes me most happy is there’s signs of shoots of recovery at West Ham United Football Club. People are talking about the football club more than maybe they have done in the past. That’s mostly down to the players, the young players and the players we’ve brought in. An England player who is doing really well, more international players than we’ve probably had. All those things I’m pleased about. We have a support that now enjoys watching the team. That gives me a lot of pride because it means you’re doing something right. The praise will always go to the players for the way they’ve performed.
Rice set for his 150th Premier League game on Saturday. Is he going to be a legend?
I want him to keep driving on. I want Declan to realise he can keep stepping up. I think he has stepped up again. After the Euros, of the players who played he is one who has stood out since with his performances. He’s helped West Ham certaily improve, he’s helped us as a team and as a club. But hopefully we’ve helped him as well. He’s getting a chance to lead the team with a lot of responsibility from Mark Noble as well. Declan’s all-round play has improved greatly and I think he’s shown a real level of consistency as well. His standards have been very high in the main this season.
What have you learnt in the two years?
I’m learning all the time. I’m trying to get better at what I do, change how we play and improve the style. But ultimately the big thing you want to do is win.I want to try and win as many games as we can. In the two years it’s maybe been as good a record as I’ve had at different times. Our wins ratio in the main. What I felt I could bring to West Ham was an idea of how you could build a football club and how you could grow it. We’re only at the start of that journey but we’ve started really well and now I hope we can try and get another layer. It doesn’t always come right away but for us to try and remain consistent like last year and finish in the top half would be another step in the right direction. There are other things I want us to grow. I want a better youth team, I want us to do much more better things around the training ground, as correctly as we can. There are a lot of things we can do to keep moving along.
Won 12 points from losing positions this season – pleasing to see that fight and spirit?
But we shouldn’t have been in that losing position in the first place. I don’t want us to be losing. If you are you want your team to show a bit of character and I think for long part, last season as well, we showed great character. The players in the main have really pushed and adapted. Even recently when we’ve not reached the heights the players have shown that character and resilience in every game we’ve played in.
Have you set a minimum target for the team?
We didn’t set the target but the challenge is we lost out on the Champions League last season by two points. Can we find a way of getting those two extra points? That’s the challenge, it’s not really a target but we’ll keep challenging. I want to push the players but I don’t want to expect anything easily. We have to understand I can’t let expectations get too high when we’re trying to grow the club. There are going to be blips and I have to make sure I’m ready for them and how we deal with it.
Why is Bowen so good?
It’s not solely fitness. It’s more down to having time to adapt to the Premier League. I keep saying this. A lot of players need time to get used to it. Jarrod has got used to it. He came back in really good condition. That was the best I’ve seen him. Of all the players he is probably the player who hit the ground running. He’s had a dip at different times in these months but he’s definitely shown a level of consistency to keep getting assists and goals.
Christmas has always been busy – these games are for fans, so managers shouldn’t moan, right?
I can’t speak for anyone but myself. I’ve worked and lived in this country and also had a chance to work in Spain and see how they do things. In this country we play games over the Christmas period. I think there has been one extra game put in this year, I might be wrong in saying that, but we had the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup put in a few days before Christmas so I do understand why teams who have been successful in cup competitions have got a level of complaint. There are very few weeks to have any spare time at all. I do understand it but I also come from a country where we play the games, so maybe I’m a bit more hardened than others who haven’t been here as long.
Games being postponed – any concerns over integrity when injuries now taken into account?
If you have half a dozen with covid and half a dozen with injuries it probably rules you out of playing a game but what we have is five or six injuries and feeling it from that point of view. I don’t agree that injuries should play a part in it but if you don’t have enough to field a team then is it right? A lot of it I don’t agree with but it’s very hard to work out because of the way the Premier League have done it. I have no idea at the moment over what would constitute a game being called off or not. We’ve seen the rules but I don’t believe they’ve been adhered to from the first game that was called off to where we are now.
Clock ticking on Noble. Will you miss him?
I think Mark will be around. I don’t think he’ll be far away. We’d like to keep Mark in some capacity because of the number of years he’s been here but sometimes when you finish playing you want a bit of time away, a bit of time with the family after training every day. The other day he played really well but he’s been stiff the last two days, which you’d expect, but he’s done a great job. There’s no doubt about his football, about his ability or his tactical nous. It’s just age is catching up a little bit on his legs and physically. Otherwise it wasn’t for that he could continue playing. He’s been a really good player for this club. Not only that, he’s a great ambassador for West Ham too.
Has club ever been in as good a position in the past 15 years?
West Ham supporters are the ones who can give you a better answer than me but I think we have a really good team here. We have some really exciting players to build on and improve. If you’re going to standstill, we’ll fall back. We have to keep moving on. We moved on in the opening part of the season. I think we’ve stepped up again and I now need to find a way to find a step on the ladder if we can, with the team and with the club. We want West Ham to grow. We want a new, young West Ham support. It’s great the support we have at the stadium. We want to keep building.
