David Moyes’ approach to his first full season in charge of West Ham United – assuming all things go well – has big echoes of his time at Everton.
He seems intent on ensuring that everyone he brings in knows precisely what playing for this club is all about and on the strength of his first two arrivals everything .
Beyond claiming that “central defenders are often a bit better when they are more experienced” it’s clear that he’s intent on building a squad with a much lower age group than the present.
It’s easy to see why given that the team which regularly competed the last part of the season had an average age of around 29 and a half. Hos priority is clearly on reducing that considerably.
The 30 plusses included Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Cresswell, Angelo Ogbonna, Mark Noble and Mikey Antonio and whilst he admits they can’t be neglected, youth is clearly the key to his future plans.
He admitted in his recent London Evening Standard interview: “We are trying to bring in a younger group.
We have the makings of a young group and I think if we can keep adding to that that’ll be good, but we want them to be good players and want them to be players who can come in and help us but we are also not neglecting our most senior players.
Central defenders, for example, are often a bit better when they’re more experienced. So, we will just need to see what comes at the right time for us.”
The big question is imho not about Moyes but how ambitious are the owners? Are they willing to take a hit to move us forward ? How many players can we move and break even on in the current climate ? Am optimistic about the Czech players coming in, that would be good and perhaps we can raise our profile in that neck of the woods and attract more quality, from that region. If they are all a similar mindset to Soucek they will help us be more competitive COYI !!!
I am writing this from Sydney Australia so these days watch from afar. I can remember the teams of the late 50s 60s and 70s when most of the players were either locally or home grown. The club needs to nurture local and home grown talent and rely less on foreign players if possible. If me clubs did this the result may be a stronger England team as well. I can well remember the contribution that West Ham made to the 1966 World Cup Team