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18 months and waiting…Moysie messaging is not good

 

 

Gonzo has summer window worries

 

There are many reasons to admire Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola but there is one character trait in particular that has always impressed me.

I don’t claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Citizens starting eleven for each game but it’s always struck me how nobody is guaranteed a starting spot.

Even superstar players such as Kevin De  Bruyne and João Cancelo have been dropped by the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager.

On the final day of the season as Liverpool and Manchester City battled it out for the Premier League title, Pep decided to drop record £100m signing Jack Grealish.

Actions speak louder than words and the message is clear . . . ANYBODY can be benched and there are no favourites.

Moyes with head of recruitment Rob Newman

I was thinking about this when rumours surrounding David Moyes pursuit of a ‘back up striker’ started to emanate.

The suggestion is that Moysies will bring in a forward under the right circumstances but only for a small fee and only as back-up to Michail Antonio.

This sounds like a terrible idea to me. It’s imperative that the West Ham manager recruits a striker who is every inch Antonio’s equal because anyone less will not feature. History suggests that Moyes has his favourites and is not keen to substitute any of them.

The rumour is that the Irons manager is willing to spend up to £25m on a reserve striker in order to save funds for ‘priority positions’.

Many may believe that spending such a sum on a player will guarantee some level of team involvement. Unfortunately as Nicola Vlasic will testify, a £20m+ transfer fee is no insulation against Moyes using his ‘trusted’ players.

I certainly got the impression this season that Issa Diop would be relegated to the bench regardless of how well he performed.

He’s not a bad player but he’ll never be anything other than 4th or 5th choice centre half under David Moyes. This is a prime example of how our manager likes to operate.

I’m aware that we’re only dealing with rumours but the suggestion Moyes is not keen to recruit a striker becomes more believable considering it’s been 18 months (and counting) since we sold Sebastian Haller.

At the time of Haller’s sale to Ajax Moyes was informing anyone who’d listen that there were funds available and that he was looking for a replacement.

Moysie is less effusive on the subject now and this spells trouble. Hopefully it’s all smoke and mirrors to mask the trail of a signing so far unbeknown to us but I don’t like the messaging.

Second fiddle, back-up or reserve is not a good situation to be in under Moyes. . . . it usually spells inactivity under a manager who doesn’t make substitutions unless he absolutely has too.

 

About Gonzo

Hammers Chat video blogger @Gonzobignose

7 comments on “18 months and waiting…Moysie messaging is not good

  1. Gonzo your right and the in moyes we trust brigade certainly not me say let moyes choice his plan a with never a plan b in sight. Useless at not just changing tactics like top coaches do Potter for one second half Brighton game or pep 2down winning 3.2 . He doesn’t even use his bench with a a few better players than vlasic coming on or kral never used and both dreadful mistakes. Next season only I give moyes after summer spend and see if his learnt anything in his career of winning nothing .

  2. Totally and utterly agree. Trouble is Moyes loves old Players whose days are coming to an end, if not have already ended time to give Newman the reins. We need a Director of Football and as sensible recruitment system.

  3. The gaping flaw in the logic here is that Moyes has to cut his cloth according to the financial reality at a club that plays by the rules. Guardiola may or may not – let’s see what the outcome of the EPL’S three-year (and counting) investigation into Man City’s says – have to operate under the same constraint. Also, It’s much easier to drop players when the player coming in is very likely to be much better, and much more expensive, than their counterpart in the opposing team. Moyes doesn’t have that luxury. He has a much smaller squad currently. Hopefully, it’ll be a bigger squad at the end of the transfer window.
    Moyes hasn’t been perfect in either of his spells at the club, by any means. He has been honest and managed the expectations of the fans well, though. The messaging from some sections of the support since the end of the season, rather than the messaging from Moyes himself, is what worries me. Some people seem to forget that, despite the lack of transfer activity in the last couple of windows, and despite one or two dodgy signings in those windows, Moyes has delivered more than any one of the clowns and chancers that have managed our club since 1989. I’d back him to a better job than Guardiola if the playing field was level. Surely, it’s time to cut Moyes some slack.

  4. Moyes has a habit of making statements backing up and stating faith in his strikers publicly even when their goals dry up. I remember him doing that with Jelavic at Everton. They decided to bring in a new striker anyway. Think it was Lukaku but then Moyes moved to Man United anyway. Antonio is a confidence player and Moyes is keeping him onside. I won’t be surprised if a striker comes in who is better during the window and besides, Antonio can always play left wing. That would be my team, A front three of Antonio on the left, new striker up front and Bowen on the right.

  5. Someone pinch me, I was sure we’ve finished 6th and 7th in consecutive seasons, were semi finalists in a European competition for the first time since 1976 and our last manager to win anything of note was John Lyall in 1980.

    Oh and add to that the transfer window ain’t even over yet.

    Get a grip fellas…we’re starting to sound like Spuds fans in these here parts.

  6. Definitely TWISTY KNICKER time……. I think that I’ll have to check back in at the start of pre-season.
    On the back a second very successful season in a row, it’s “Get a Grip” time for sure!

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