David Moyes has outlined what West Ham have to do in order to keep challenging for a Champions League spot during the remainder of the season. West Ham are currently in fourth spot, albeit having played a number of games more than their closest rivals for a top-four finish Arsenal, Tottenham and, Saturday’s opponents, Manchester United. After 22 matches last season West Ham were in fifth spot with 38 points compared to 37 and fourth his time around and Moyes is using last season as inspiration for the remainder of this campaign.
David Moyes said: “What gives me the most confidence about it is that this time last year is when we kicked on. This time last year we went into our best run of games, we played very well in the second half of the season when the other teams were in a similar situation with a lot of games. I think we’ve got a better team this year.”
At the end of January last season Moyes brought in Jesse Lingard on loan from Manchester United and credited the England international for the difference he made to the campaign.
David Moyes added: “What we did get is that we brought in Jesse in January last year which gave us a boost, gave us some goals and a bit more of something. That definitely had an impact on us. The team this year has started the season better, been playing better. In truth, for most of the front half of the season, we’ve been in a better position so it is now if we can maintain that consistency and keep picking up points. Of course, we’re going to lose games at times like we did last week but in the main we’ve had not a bad consistency level for most of the season so far.”
The manager is hopeful that despite no incomings so far this transfer window, West Ham will complete deals before the end of the month.
David Moyes said: “The board have been really good, they have supported me greatly and said ‘go and get what you need if you can David. ‘ Like everything else things are expensive in this window at the moment also there’s not a great pool [of players] the positions we are looking for we have found difficult to identify and maybe get ones who we think can come in and make a difference immediately. The last couple of January windows we’ve been able to do that. This window has felt a wee bit more difficult. But if things go right and we get a good run of things I am still hopeful that we will add a couple of players before the window closes.”
If West Ham do bring in fresh faces and they help to get the team over the line and into the top four next season, Moyes is keen to continue building at the club. However, he wants to keep the humble aspect of his squad he currently has by following the famous All Blacks policy on characters in a dressing room.
David Moyes said: “I don’t think any manager wants [explicit]. And I don’t know if you can correlate [explicit] with big egos, there is a difference. You can have a big ego and not be a [explicit],” he said. We are still building here at West Ham. We have to keep putting a few layers on before we can be talked about as challenging. If possible I would like to give the West Ham supporters someone else they can shout about, someone else they can see a continued line of us trying to keep it going.”
On the prospect of new signings this transfer window,
David Moyes said: “What I don’t want to do is waste any money. I would rather keep it and pay bigger for someone next summer if I have to rather than waste it on someone that I might not use at the moment.”
