Winston Reid’s Bournemouth dropping showed there are no “untouchables” with David Moyes.
David Moyes is giving every appearance of settling in for the long haul despite the Hammers remaining perilously close to the relegation places.
His determination to find new midfielders and the club’s admission that £25 million rated Alfie Mawson is a winter target seems to confirm that the Scot is all set to strike a deal with the club in the summer.
And whatever the outcome of this very difficult season I believe the club will stick with the 54 year old.
Moyes’ actions over recent games have shown quite clearly that he is determined to establish his authority at the London Stadium with the dropping of Winston Reid being the clearest sign yet that this man will not be messed with.
Reid’s regular injury problems and poor form this season finally received the treatment they required at Bournemouth as Moyes demonstrated there are no “untouchables” in the squad.
It should be no surprise to any of us because the manager made it clear following his first game at Watford that some players need to show him the reputations they have gained as he hadn’t seen them at Vicarage Road.
Chicharito is another of whom Moyes seems doubtful despite the Mexican being on reported wages of around £130k. He has become a marginal figure under the manager’s plans just as he did at Old Trafford.
I have little doubt that West Ham will be safe at the end of the season but I see a list of players who will be out of the door as the manager and his former scout, recruitment director to the board, Tony Henry, get down to the business of bringing in new faces.
Moyes’ style of play is based on high energy running and athleticism and several certainly don’t tick that box. Add those who are of dubious quality and this is my list of those who could soon be facing the exit door:
Winston Reid, Jose Fonte, Edmilson Fernandes, Pedro Obiang, Diafra Sakho. Andre Ayew and Chicharito.
You will all have your own lost of candidates but one thing looks certain under this guy a big shake up looks an absolute certainty.
Fernandes is injured & young think he is good squad player & can get better especially of find his position which was CM but has been played all over. As the physical attributes.
Just hope we don’t spend out whole kitty on Mawson hopefully if happens is a swap deal & we pay £5m w Ayew swap. Tho I like Ayew don’t want to spend whole kitty on one CB who is good but our priority should be midfield.
And really think we need to look outside PL which Moyes doesn’t seem to want to do unless they have previous PL experience or British.
He likes to bring in players his managed seen Kone come up again & he has horrific attitude much rather have Adin Flint from Championship.
And hope we don’t sell Ox for £5.5m which seems we could…. We could of sold him for more then that last season & is doing well in a position we need let him see out is loan if don’t have plans for him this season & get that experience will be worth more.
Seems most our CFs could be sold too by end of Jan probably be back to just AC again. So much for clean slate.
This is why DOF is needed but I hope they get it right. Everton already made a good signing in Tosun. And still think we missed out in Henry Onyekuru who went for £6.7m now worth 3x that easy still scoring goals w interest from all over Juve Barca & more.
Wilshere is signing new contract
I do like the links to Bryan Cristante & Gabriel Pires more what we should be looking at young hungry midfielders.
Some of our best players came from outside PL
I think Moyes rates Fernandes he played him a lot until he was injured, he has undoubdted quality but he needs to be more aggressive without the ball, he is the best passer of a ball we have in the team and alongside Arnautovic and Lanzini has the best feet if he adds aggression and physicality he will attract a lot of interest from bigger clubs than us. I like that Moyes isn’t going to stick with the old guard unless they perform in training and on the pitch it sends out the right message that mediocrity will not get you a starting place but we need more players to buy into it and start producing consistently, there is improvement there but players like Obiang, Kouyate, Ayew, Reid, Carroll etc are struggling to reach those levels consistently. I am 100% behind Moyes in the demands but unless we buy players that can bring that consistency for the rest of the season I think it is going to be more up’s and downs and a long relegation fight this season. The way I see it is very much like Pochetino at Spurs it took a long while and there was a lot of inconsistency in the short term but they eventually started improving, the big advantage Poch had was a pre-season to get the players fit enough to play his way and a transfer window to buy what he needed, Poch’s team also plays the same way against all teams and Moyes hasn’t yet found the perfect blend in our team to deliver solid results home and away.