West Ham United manager David Moyes has responded to Everton’s current off-the-field turmoil by maintaining that he never saw a divided club during his long tenure in charge at Goodison Park. Moyes’ Hammers host the Blues on Saturday with both sides on just 15 points and in the Premier League relegation zone and the visitors go into the fixture on the back of planned fan protests against the club’s owner and board after their 2-1 home defeat to bottom club Southampton, a game that Everton directors did not attend due to security concerns.
Asked if the situation upset him, the 59-year-old, who was Everton’s manager for over 11 years between 2002-13, said: “I remember when I came here, I was only here three or four games, we had supporters running on the pitch. It was a terrible time for us and I think one of the biggest things that needs to happen as a football club is it for it to come together.
“That needs the supporters, that needs the players, the directors all to be together. It’s the one thing that happens here at West Ham, I don’t see a divided club here and I’ve got to say from my time at Everton, I never saw a divided club at Everton.
“I can’t really comment, (if Everton are divided at the moment) I can only tell you that this football club is much more together I think than it’s ever been.”
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After leaving Everton for Manchester United, Moyes was sacked by the Red Devils after just 10 months some 48 hours after a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park and speculation has been rife this week that his current employers could wield the axe if he loses to his former club but he insists he isn’t concerned over his own future. He said: “No, I’ve not (worried), what I do think is I’ve had to go off piecing it a little bit, because obvious we bought in players and we wanted it to happen.
“We tried to break it a little bit in the summer to try to move it onto another level because I’d seen signs of it that we weren’t quite going the way we wanted to. We’ve had to go and do things slightly differently because of the position we’re in at the moment."
West Ham haven’t won a Premier League game (2-0 at home to Bournemouth) since the same weekend that Everton last triumphed in the competition, 3-0 against Crystal Palace at Goodison Park but the Scot maintains that spirit in the camp remains high having added some extra firepower this week in the shape of a striker who has been prolific against the Blues in the past. Moyes said: “Team morale is fine. We need to play better, we need to score more goals, that’s the obvious thing.
“We’ve got Danny Ings in to try and help us there. We’re working all the time to try and get those better results.
“I can only tell you the players are in good fettle. We want them to feel the heat because we don’t want to be in this position.”
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