David Moyes accepts that we are the new boys on the block in European football as we go into the quarter final clash against Lyon.

And he doesn’t believe the Irons would have been a team Uefa imagined would be making it to this stage of the Europa Cup.

He has also hit out against potential rule changes to European qualification which could prevent clubs such as ours mixing with the continent’s elite.

Reports have emerged  that the winners of the FA Cup could qualify for a place in the Champions League in the future – but only if they are a so-called big club.

Were the rule in place this season, for example, and if this year’s semi-finalists Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester City finished outside the top four but won the FA Cup, they could still earn a Champions League berth.

But Crystal Palace, the other team in the last four, would not qualify due to their lack of European pedigree.

Ahead of the first leg of their first European quarter-final in 41 years, against Lyon, Moyes said: “If we’re honestly talking about a football club who are back in Europe, you would have to say we’re new. We’re the new boys on the block.

“I bet you UEFA were not expecting West Ham to be in this position. But that’s what happens. And that’s why we need to keep encouraging UEFA to bring in other teams.

“Look how well we’ve done. Maybe we might not have got in this competition if there were different rules.

“From that point of view, I really think that we want to show that we can challenge. And if we’re at our best, we’re a match for most teams and we can be.”

“We have not even talked a minute other than about Lyon. How could we dare? We wouldn’t.

“It is too big a game, too big a club that we are playing. We’re playing a really strong team in Europe over many years so we find that we wouldn’t even think about it. None of us have considered it.

“One game at a time, it is sad but that is it.”