The mainstream media often do themselves no favours with West Ham fans. On one hand, they demand respect for manager David Moyes, yet on the other, they stir up controversy, which in turn creates more ill feeling among supporters.
The latest pundit to openly criticise Hammers supporters is BBC reporter and former Tottenham player Garth Crooks. Crooks recently joined those cautioning “be careful what you wish for,” but this time he explicitly stated what many have implied.
Speaking yesterday, Crooks said: âAs for Moyes, well, he has departed on good terms and left the club in a far better state than when he arrived,â he told BBC Sport.
âThe West Ham fans have driven him out and wait to see what Julen Lopetegui can do. Be careful what you wish for.â
What Crooks fails to grasp is that while the fans have parted on good terms with David Moyes, every critique from his media allies against West Ham fans compels us to defend our reasons for wanting a change. This only perpetuates more ill feeling at a time when we should be celebrating Moyes’s contributions.
Crooks does have a point that fan pressure played a significant role in Moyes’s departure. However, he neglects to mention the many nuanced reasons why fans might want the Scotsman to leave. With a game against Manchester City still pending, West Ham have already conceded 71 goals this seasonâa Premier League record for the club. To put it bluntly, we’re bloody awful.
As for Crooks’s point that the club is in better shape than when Moyes arrived, that’s a subjective view. West Ham possess the second oldest squad in the Premier League and need more than just a few new signings in the next transfer window; the squad requires major overhaul. Many players are too old to play effectively, some are out of contract, and others, like Maxwel Cornet, Danny Ings, and Divin Mubama, want to leave due to lack of playtime.
The assertion that the West Ham squad is in excellent shape doesnât hold up under scrutiny. In fact, with the smallest and second oldest squad in the Premier League, it’s arguably unfit for purpose and requires significant rebuilding.
Moyes has also overseen considerable financial mismanagement, which has seen the club haemorrhage significant sums on players like Nikola Vlasic and Gianluca Scamacca, the latter of whom has proven himself one of Europe’s finest strikers, which should really be cause for major embarrassment for Moyes. Quite how his media chums allow Moyes to remain unchallenged on the subject of Scamacca is a mystery.
With financial fair play and PSR sustainability regulations being ever more strictly enforced, West Ham cannot afford to lose large sums on players who fail to make an impact.
Pundits like Garth Crooks often make their points with broad statements and lack a deep understanding of the issues at hand. There’s never any discussion of the financial missteps, the broken West Ham defence, the team’s relegation form this year, or even Moyes’s recent signings like Kalvin Phillips.
Instead of a detailed and nuanced debate, figures like Crooks often resort to repeating football clichĂŠs like “be careful what you wish for” without truly considering the implications of their words.
And while I’m at it. . Why oh why does Mr Martin constantly introduce our new manager by.
his age! we all know he is 57. so what is the significance of repeating it ad nauseam would
it be considered a clichĂŠ .
YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOOK FAR FROM HOME TO READ TRITE ARTICLES
WRITTEN BY MR MARTN . LINE AFTER LINE. OF. REGURGITATED. MATERIAL
LEADING TO THE CLICHĂ CLIMAX. ( WHEN DISCUSSING A POSSIBLE NEW
WEST HAM PLAYER ) THEY. COULD TAKE THE TEAM TO A NEW LEVEL..
HE. STATES. ASSUREDLY.. ABSOLUTE DRIVEL. MR MARTIN. PLEASE. LOOK
FOR A NEW (IN TIME. ) CLICHĂ….
To suggest that the club is in a better state now is definitely a subjective view – yes, we have had a sustained period of success, given that this season will see the third top ten finish out of five that Moyes has overseen, plus the overwhelming joy of Prague, not to mention getting to the semi-final of the Europa League, and those stunning victories over Sevilla and Lyon. But this really has to be tempered against the post-Christmas malaise that we’ve had not once, but twice, with seven league wins in the second half of 21/22 (which arguably cost us sixth place), and just four in the second half of 23/24 (which has cost us the prospect of Europe altogether). Then there is the fact that, of the 71 goals we’ve conceded in the league (which for a manager who prides himself on the strength of his defence is pretty poor to save the least), 29 of them came in just six games (Villa away, Fulham away, Arsenal home, Newcastle away, Palace away, Chelsea away). To ship at least four goals in a single game once or twice in a season may be forgivable, but to do it six times, including in four derby games, is unacceptable. We all know that Moyes is weak when it comes to his squad management and use of substitutes – while yes, both Fornals and Benrahma wanted out because they wanted to play regularly, to not even attempt to replace them was a major mistake, compounded by bringing in Phillips, in the one area that we were probably ok with. Clearly it was thought that Phillips would have a similar type of impact as Jesse Lingard, but if you want a Lingard like impact, you bring in a Lingard like player (we definitely got lucky with that one).
Ultimately, Moyes has been our manager for 4.5 years – out of those, I think we can agree that he got a total of two full seasons of genuine success and quality out of the players in his charge (the whole lockdown season, plus the first half of 21/22 and 23/24, as well as when football restarted after the first lockdown in 2020). Now, if the talking heads and nodding dogs that occupy the chairs on Match of the Day, Soccer Saturday, TalkSport and the rest think that’s an acceptable return, well, they’re entitled to their opinion. But ultimately, even though they think their opinion actually matters (and I’m looking at the likes of Simon Jordan and Paul Merson in this instance), we know perfectly well that what they say is as much use as putting peanut butter into your engine in place of oil as a lubricant (my apologies for that torturous similie). It’s our club, not theirs.
To set the record straight. Not all West Ham fans wanted Moyes out. Yet to these pundits in the media you would think it was all West Ham fans that forced Moyes out.
Media whores the lot of them
Give em a payment and they’ll say what they’re told to say. Filthy lucre will always grease dirty palms.
We have to remember he is an ex footballer and in all likelihood not capable of rigorous critical thinking and nuance! He deals in sweeping statements, cliches, platitudes and group think – why do you expect anymore?
Im like Dorothy in the wizard of Oz “I wish I wish I wish” , namely that ****s like crooks would do one and swallow their tongues , I mean what’s the worse that could happen other than I sit in my little seat like no other and for once get totally entertained, dream on? Come on loopy make us a team like no other.COYI
There is a lot of sense in your article Gonzo, but please bear in mind you are missing the occasional nuanced reasoning as well. As far as Scamacca is concerned, it took his coach at Atalanta and Italy’s national coach to give him a little bit of public humiliation to get him to re-evaluate his situation and change his lazy attitude. Only after that rocket and lambasting did he finally decided to give up playing playstation late into the night before games and get himself in the right headspace. Respected Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini has told Lâeco di Bergamo â Scamacca simply has to work harder. âHe has to run because he isnât running much,â Gasperini said. âIf he is so un-dynamic he wonât be able to do anything good, even if he has these important qualities.â
That was then follwed by The Gazzetta report confirming Scamacca was not called up for Italyâs latest games against Venezuela and Ecuador because Italy coach Luciano Spalletti was unhappy with his attitude. Spalletti had banned his international stars from playing video games, but it seems Scamacca has been willing to ignore those demands. The Azzurri boss found out Scamacca had spent a night awake playing PlayStation ahead of a key Euro 2024 qualifying fixture against Ukraine in November, so he didnât include him in the team for the following international friendlies.
âIf modernity is playing the PlayStation until four in the morning when there is a match the next day, then this modernity is not good,â Spalletti said in February, without mentioning Scamacca directly.It comes after Italy national team boss Lucian.
So being fair to West Ham, his attitude after getting injured while on international duty appears to have been far from where it should have been. With the extent of his injury and the following surgery he spent too much time on the treatment table and not enough time showing his obvious ability. But I think a lot of that was more down to his own attitude rather than any kind of mis-management. Although there are obviously other things that may have caused issues too, like openly admitting he wanted to play for Jose and Roma while still a West Ham player. Maybe concentrate on getting match fit again and applying yourself at West Ham. And as far as the finances go, we recouped ÂŁ27 million on Scamacca, but also maybe have a read of this. ( https://www.kumb.com/article.php?id=44861 ) I don’t think we can moan about a few million here and there for players that didn’t cut it, that’s always a risk that every club has to deal with. No one goes out of their way to sign a bad player no matter who they are, but we all know that Mr Sullivan likes to get far too involved in those kind of matters as well.
I do agree that a lot of pundits look at things with rose-tinted glasses and have no real idea of what is going on. They hear a bit of a rumour, look at the table and assume that things aren’t that bad and what have we got to moan about. I really hope u read the article on KUMB as I’m looking forward to the day when all of the suggested restructuring and investment, along with a CEO, structured scouting framework with data lead targets comes to fruition. It would be a complete overhaul of our club making its operating procedure efficient, modern and sustainable – and also futureproofing it to comply with the ever changing PSR rules. It would give us a strong but flexible structured football framework allowing our club to prosper. Hopefully if all that happens, it will start to pay dividends instead of one or 2 of the big names like the majority shareholder, chairman or owner calling the shots as they see it. COYI
Great response. Well done.
I am really impressed with the genuine concern these experts have for our club and supporters. They know best on all aspects with supporters views treated With contempt.
‘BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!’ – I hope we chant this whenever were winning next season.
Any prem manager with 20 no wins is stackable.There is no room for sentiment in top league management we go 6th 7th and then farcical descions in the team selection and any game plan down we go.I cannot believe the
players were happy with the way they were asked play.As for pundits mostly dinosaurs spouting off just keep quiet unless you critic has base
**** Brookeâs , another irrelevance. All these pundidiots say exactly the same generic cliques, and either dont pay much attention to details, or are too comfortable to break rank .
Any random moron in a pub who only looks recent positions and the conference cup will come to the same conclusion. They donât watch West Ham , they donât know what weâve spent, they follow our form , they donât know our squad. And neither apparently do idiots like Gareth Brookeâs .
So what is the point of them ??
Ps when they get it wrong , itâs forgotten about .total no marks
Very good critique Gonzo.
Another day another âno markâ âhas beenâ and maybe never was in the first place has to give their shallow view that all us West Ham fans are knuckle dragging morons.
I havenât always disliked Moyes and think he has done some really good things notably keeping us up. But over time his ignorance and stubbornness have led to this and as you say we should all be saying thanks and all the best. Instead these pathetic pieces from the likes of Crooksie make us have to point out why he ended up so bad and things became so toxic. Also,I like many, am not sure JL will be exactly what we crave but with all the criticism of him before he has a chance to show what he is like, it is making me be far more pro JL than anti especially when you measure him up against Moyes in all the different aspects of the game and what he and JL have done before.