It’s time for a few of us to zip it as far as the manager is concerned.
I wrote on Thursday that if the Hammers could beat Lyon with an injury and suspension hit squad we would all need to take our claret and blue caps off to him
Mine is despite having had reservations like others about the way he works transfer windows and often accepting the nickname he was handed at Manchester United of Dithering Dave.
There are no words left to describe what he has done at this club with a squad the like of which we have never seen before in terms of guts, determination, work rate and endeavour.
His decision not to buy in the winter hasn’t stopped us progressing to a major semi final and one signing in particular at £3 million, Craig Dawson, is just one example of the manager’s work in windows.
Ktal and Vlasic are others but hey you win some, you lose some, and enough has been achieved on the pitch for all of us to go with him.
Two key words are all important: Trust Moyes!
You’d have to question the judgement of anybody that thinks we’ve had a better manager than Moyes since Lyall. You’d also have to question the judgement of anybody that thinks there are better managers out there currently who would a) come to West Ham, and; b) be as effective as Moyes has been with the sort of transfer budget constraint that all West Ham managers have to work with. The whole Dithering Dave nonsense might have been more apt when he was at Manchester United because he had much more money to play with, and so a bit more headroom to make mistakes in the transfer market. At West Ham, though, I’d question whether anybody should have ever levelled the Dithering Dave accusation at him at all. He’s got much less money to play with, and he’s very obviously a very careful steward of that money – which, let’s not forget, is the money that us fans generate for the club – who is very keen on getting VALUE FOR MONEY (capital letter are intentional) from the transfer dealings that he’s able to make with that more limited budget. With that in mind, by definition, from the outside, he’s going to be seen to be “dithering”. We, as fans, shouldn’t mistake being careful to generate VALUE FOR MONEY with “dithering”. Craig Dawson is, by a country mile, the best VALUE FOR MONEY signing made in the EPL in the last few years, as far as I can see. Ok, Moyes hasn’t replaced Haller yet. But what would we rather him do: carefully select the RIGHT replacement or spaff money up the wall on another Davor Suker (whose annual wages was equivalent to the takings of the entire East Stand for an entire season) or a Simone Zaza (who clearly didn’t want to be at West Ham) or a Modibo Maiga (who wasn’t good enough for the EPL full stop) or an Enner Valencia (who shone brightly here and there, but overall was ineffective)? I could go on! Also, we shouldn’t forget that it’s really hard to sign good players when you’re West Ham manager: our club, at the moment, isn’t as attractive a prospect for top players as other clubs. We also need to remember that, over the last few years, In recent years, West Ham managers, including Moyes, are having to deal with the transfer market fallout of the financial doping going at other clubs, who are consistently spending well beyond their means. Couple that context with the more limited budget that there is to work with here, and it’s easy to see why lots of West Ham managers (including Lyall in the dim and distant past, let’s not forget – anyone remember David Kelly?) have failed on an epic scale in the transfer market. Moyes hasn’t been panicked in the transfer market and he’s pushed us on year-on-year, so far. He should be applauded and supported to the hilt by us fans, not derided.
Vlasic 27m?