David Moyes has turned to a Church of England leader in taking inspiration for the rest of the season and beyond.
And the Hammers boss has made it clear that nothing short of Premier League survival will do as the Irons go into the match against Watford.
That’s followed by a visit to Manchester United and a home visit from Aston Villa on which none of us hope anything is reliant.
But having listened to the words of the Archbishop of York the Hammers boss is clearly in no mood to talk a good game but more interested in ensuring that the team’s actions speak much louder than words.
Talking to reporters the manager made it clear that of all the things that I heard in lockdown the most interesting came from the Archbishop of York.
Moyes explained: ” He said promise less and deliver more.
“That has to be a little bit of West Ham. We have to make sure we deliver. But we cannot keep promising that we will finish in the high high positions.
“We need to build the club … we suddenly can’t go from this position to way up the Premier League. I hope we can but this is got to be something that we can do and we need to be careful that we don’t promise too much which we can’t deliver.”
On survival he added: “It will be absolutely massive for this club. For us to get anything else other than Premier League will not be good. It is so important.
And more important due to the period we have come through, lockdown, no crowds, a difficult period for a lot of clubs. It is no different for West Ham. The key is for us to make sure we are a Premier League club and see if we can continue that.”
This is really sensible stuff from Moyes. One of the problems at West Ham is the collective delusion of grandeur, which we’re all guilty of (me included). We need to remember how infrequently we’ve finished in the top half of the top division in English football. To transform our fortunes into the longer-term (a la Chelsea or Man City) will require enormous spending (which GBS can’t afford, and will break FFP rules, anyway) or a slowly-slowly approach, whist managing the fans’ delusions of grandeur.
“Promise less, deliver more” says David ‘I win, that’s what I do’ Moyes. Five out of 18 (one of those a gimme at Norwich). PPG 1. He sure needs to deliver more.