And so the club that spent £160m in the summer will begin its FA Cup campaign with as many wins against Danish opposition as against English clubs this season. Suffice to say this is not how West Ham planned the season to go. An evening spent veering in and out of the drop zone was a throwback to unhappier times.
For David Moyes, the only West Ham manager ever to secure back-to-back top-seven finishes in the top flight, the bottom three assumes a greater significance now. A frenetic draw at Leeds halted a run of five straight defeats. It also meant West Ham have only won five of their last 25 league games. The Hammers’ funds may be diminished after the biggest spending spree in their history, but Moyes thinks he should have credit in the bank with his employers. “There are a lot of things that have happened in the last two and a half years that probably give them the confidence to think they’ve got a manager they can trust and they can work with,” Moyes said.
West Ham are 17th, the position they were in when Moyes was reappointed three years ago. He has twice got them out of such a predicament before, but never after getting them into it. Were they to sack him now, they might want a manager like Moyes – at least for now, given their plight dictates that a more ambitious target, such as Mauricio Pochettino or Thomas Tuchel, would probably not hanker after a relegation battle.
Yet Moyes emerged at Elland Road with his position strengthened a little in one respect, and brought into further question in another. He lost a champion with the death of West Ham’s joint chair David Gold.
“David Gold was incredibly supportive of me personally; [he] wanted me to stay after the first time,” he said. (West Ham’s 2018 decision to dispense with his services and appoint Manuel Pellegrini backfired; this may have been Moyes’s way of reminding them of that.)
It leaves him, he thinks, still with another backer in the boardroom. “David Sullivan has been equally as good, if not better,” he said. “He has been fantastic in his support.” Rewind a few months and there were ample reasons to get behind Moyes. West Ham did, to such an extent that they were Europe’s third-biggest summer spenders. A station in the bottom four now brings their judgement into question. Moyes, whose net spend over 11 years at Everton, albeit in an era of smaller prices, averaged out at £2.8m per season, may have a reputation for being better with a lesser budget and as a manager who can galvanise and unify the more prosaic players who share his work ethic.
West Ham had got slight returns from their two flagship signings until each scored at Elland Road. Lucas Paqueta has not always given the impression he wants to be at West Ham; after reaching double figures for goals in his last two seasons for Lyon, this was a first for his new club. The £50m man at least offered hints of flair, though Moyes sounded nonplussed and rather more enthusiastic about Gianluca Scamacca, who ended his 10-game drought. “Well, one’s a penalty kick so I don’t know if you can count that as an out-and-out goal, but Gianluca has got that type of goal in him,” the Scot said. “I need him to start scoring ones inside the box, and headers and tap-ins and things off the goalkeeper. I’m really pleased for him, and hopefully it can give him confidence to build up and score more for us.”
Moyes rarely gives praise unless he believes it is justified. His assessment of a seemingly auspicious first Premier League start from Nayef Aguerd was merely: “OK. I think he is a really talented footballer. Tonight wasn’t the easiest place to come and start, but he got through it.”
Aguerd, Paqueta and Scamacca were bought to be upgrades across the spine of the side. The Moroccan offers scope for defensive excellence, but thus far a team with a Brazilian No 10 and one of Serie A’s top scorers last season averages under a goal a game.
Apart from them, Moyes has little to show from seemingly unfettered spending. Maxwel Cornet, often injured, has made one league start; Alphonse Areola, unable to displace Lukasz Fabianski, none. Emerson Palmieri had made four, but Italy’s left-back in the Euro 2020 final now seems to be West Ham’s third choice, unless Moyes plays wing-backs.
Thilo Kehrer was preferred in Leeds; largely mediocre in his preferred positions at right-back and centre-back this season, he was hapless as he suggested he can be the wrong sort of utility man.
If confidence and trust in Moyes has frayed this season, it is because of recruits as well as results. A case to stay requires wins, but also the sense that West Ham did not lose their solidity, their unity and their potency with the spending spree that was designed to take them to a higher level but risks condemning them to a lower division.
