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Moyes on huffy Ronaldo, ego and his humble Hammers

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David Moyes insists he has no egos in his Hammers team as they prepare to take on Manchester United and sulker Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portugal international was clearly in a huff at being subbed during the win over Brentford earlier this week and made it clear to interim boss Ralf Rangnick that he was unhappy.

That seemed to be the player putting his ego in front of the team, especially as United were actually winning at the time.

And Moyes has made it clear that his West Ham squad doesn’t have that many egos as the Irons ready themselves for this weekend’s giant top-four encounter against Rangnick’s men.

Asked about the challenge of managing egos, Moyes told reporters: “It’s a big thing, it really is, for all coaches at all the clubs. It will be the same at a lot of the other big clubs. I have to say you’re talking about, what, the best player in the world?

“He’s phenomenal, that he can do what he’s done. For me the biggest thing about Ronaldo is his hunger to play and his hunger to not let up. I see him driving all the players on, showing leadership.

“For a manager he must be a great player because he’s got a level of commitment, preparation, dedication to the game and himself which will always give him a chance of being effective. At the big clubs you’ll always get players with egos and that’s a part of the job.

“We’ve got a humble group of players. Very honest. I’ve got to say great group who have got a tougher mentality now than they’ve ever had. We are hugely disappointed that we didn’t win last week.

“The players feel it, I felt it, we know we missed an opportunity to get three valuable points but that’s going to happen in a Premier League season. Looking at people like Ronaldo, who is a great example to so many young footballers how you can prolong your career, how you can keep going, keep yourself in incredible shape through dedication.”

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A journalist with 10 years' experience of working on National newspapers, now chief reporter covering the club that I've loved since I was a boy. Upton Park remains the greatest football stadium ever built.

2 comments

  • hammerpete6 says:

    As we apparently didn’t argue as much as Arsenal to stop the unnecessary Norwich game – given we were both up to date on fixtures – then we should have been bolder in team selection in either game to rest senior defenders and blood the U23’s who were ready. Look at Liverpool last night, no fear in playing young stars. We played tired players DM. Show some faith, after all, Dec is our captain, Bobby captained England at 23, Ashby and Alese and Johnson can all play.

  • Austrick says:

    Glad to hear it but much prefer the attitude of Mo Salah to Ronaldo any day of the week. Doesn’t blame everybody else in the team. At WH a player may say ‘we were poor defensively this week’ without naming names. That’s the managers job when he feels it’s needed.

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