By Cand’s top blogger Allen Cummings
2020-21 was, as we all know, a magnificent record-breaking season for West Ham United.
It was a season most of us are unlikely to forget for quite some time. Most ever wins in a single Premier League campaign, most away wins ever and most points ever recorded in a Premier League season.
It was modern-day history in the making for our club – and we loved every minute of it, even though we had to watch virtually all of it from afar!
But one accolade to elude David Moyes and his team was achieving the club’s highest ever Premier League finish.
While we ended the campaign just three points (or one win) short of that much coveted fourth place and Champions League qualification – our eventual sixth place finish wasn’t quite enough to equal or eclipse the feat of West Ham’s 1998-99 team, who ended the season in fifth spot.
So just how good was that side under Harry Redknapp in comparison?
Redknapp certainly had some excellent players at his disposal. Shaka Hislop in goal, Rio Ferdinand in defence, Frank Lampard Jnr and Eyal Berkovic in midfield, Trevor Sinclair up front and of course the irrepressible Paolo Di Canio who arrived midway through the campaign.
But was that enough to make them a better ‘team’ than the one David Moyes has crafted? Not in my book!
Ian Wright finished Hammers’ top scorer that season with nine goals, Sinclair next in line on seven – the team’s overall ‘goals for’ a meagre 46 for the season.
This season Michail Antonio, and Tomas Soucek notched 10 each, with Jesse Lingard on nine and Jarrod Bowen on eight – helping to post a very healthy overall 65 goals for the season – 19 more than the boys of ’99.
The ‘goals against’ column reflects a similar picture – 47 conceded in the season just ended, five better than Redknapp’s side who conceded 53 times in the league.
West Ham’s fifth spot in 1999 was achieved with 57 points – a full 10 points behind Everton who finished in fourth place – and that’s eight points fewer than this season’s record 65 point haul which saw us finish just one point behind fifth place Leicester and two points behind fourth placed Chelsea.
The evidence is surely irrefutable! Forget the final position – the squad that finished the 2020-21 campaign is without doubt the best and most successful we’ve ever had in the Premier League.
When I think back to H’s team, for me it was a much more exciting brand of football, pretty much played off the cuff, flair, skills and passion in abundance, of course the backdrop of the old Boleyn Ground with the original west side would see the place explode with noise in that particular season, let’s not forget that we had been steadily climbing the final table year upon year from 95/6 onwards after re-establishing ourselves for a couple of years finishing 15th.
I enjoyed the season past with Moyes’ boys, it took me a while to appreciate the beauty and doggedness combined to win ugly, I’d even go as far to say I’ve never felt more confident of us finding a way to achieve a positive result.
Statistics aside, being from the old school Irons, I still crave the thrills of our yesteryear teams who outplayed the bigger clubs on occasion with vintage West Ham way football.
And before anyone asks, what is it?
It’s Greenwood’s philosophy, plagiarised from the all conquering Hungarian national team of the 1950’s, Redknapp was a disciple, as was John Lyall, Malcolm Allison, John Bond all played for us and managed clubs whose brand of football was a joy to behold.
Was it really a much more ‘exciting’ brand of football in 98-99 DJ? 46 goals in 38 games doesn’t really reflect that! Last season’s thrilling victories over Leicester (twice) and Wolves – plus high scoring games against the spuds and Arsenal certainly excited me!
Small correction, as I understand it; Fourth place would not have earned us a Champions League place. If we were 4th Chelsea would have been fifth and would have taken our place as winners of the competition this year.
Was it really a much more ‘exciting’ brand of football in 98-99 DJ? 46 goals in 38 games doesn’t really reflect that! Last season’s thrilling victories over Leicester (twice) and Wolves – plus high scoring games against the spuds and Arsenal certainly excited me!
We finished with a negative goal difference in 1999 too. Moyes had a much better balance between attack and defence than Redknapp.
No correct needed as if Chelsea had finished 5th and won the Champs league, 4th place would still have qualified, only if another team outside of the top 4 won the Europa league would 4th in the league not been good enough, as a max from any country of 5 in th champs league is the rule
Thanks for that ‘corrected’ correction Paul 👍
Moyes has done wonders if we had kept in first place instead of got rid of who knows where we would be and Harry has done the same moyes is a legend
Far better team under Moyes, some real characters in the team and enjoyed the season much more. Plus eight whole points more than 88/9. Forget the position. Look at the quality of the top teams players, the money spent etc. We were competing with the big boys toe to toe the whole season.
Different times Allen. We were all much younger and more excited in Harry’s day. Too many facts and figures now. Different times.
COYI
Interesting post as usual Allen. Harry did have an exciting team – but also had his quirks – e.g. playing Tricky Trev Sinclair as a wing-back. One difference is that Moyes seems to always support his players (e.g. the nice comments he has made about Haller after his departure) while H had his favourites and was not shy of throwing others under the bus (e.g. Manny Ominyimi – instead of taking responsibility for including him in the squad for the League Cup tie against Villa – he slated him for giving the ball away). In that respect Moyes brings to mind the late great John Lyall