ClaretandHugh Facebook follower Simon Barham has taken a look at the ages of the Hammers squad remembering David Moyes’ promise to build a young and vibrant team.
Here he gives his views on what he has seen and and what should happen next!
By Simon Barham
Not too far off three years since David Moyes’ return he promised young, hungry, energetic and mainly British arrivals.
I looked at Brighton and Brentford’s summer signings and saw an average age of 21 while ours was 25.
I’d be prepared to accept a season in the doldrums if I could see that we were building a young, vibrant team. I would be all in favour of young and hungry as I think, with our finances, it is the best way of trying to build the club up financially to compete with the big boys.
Spurs got there years ago with that strategy (Bale, Walker, Rose, Dawson, Lennon, Defoe, Carrick) .. In more recent times, Brentford paid just £24m for all of Watkins, Toney, Noorgard, Henry, Benrahma and Mbuema as we paid more than that for just Benrahma.
I think most of us accept that Rice will leave next summer (maybe January if things don’t improve and IF Moyes and Newman are to survive, they need to deliver what Moyes promised with the money from the sale of Rice
David Moyes three years ago dealt in lies, lies and damned lies. You can lie, fail, hang onto Players who are over the top. Refuse to play young talented Players and then sell them. Refuse to buy Players who have gone on to do very well for other teams. Play the same formation over and over again. Yet be declared one hundred percent safe in your job. Heaven forbid we ever have a bad Manager. Oh I forgot we went down holding onto them. Is it Moyes who hangs on to old Players, or does the Board favour hanging onto them and waiting to see if they ever do make the grade at about 38.
I can’t see the Board reinvesting the Rice in players so Moyes has to make things work with what he’s got. And the squad he has now should be more than capable of achieving a top 10 finish. The challenge is that now is not the time to be risk averse but unfortunately that’s characterised Moyes’ time as a manager.
Moyes has more than delivered by taking a basket case club like ours into Europe two years running. Get rid of Moyes and his entire back room staff and Rice will be off for certain.