A defiant David Moyes says West Ham is a “more together club than ever” and insists his team are better than a year ago - even if they are yet to prove it on the pitch.
The Hammers boss is under huge pressure over his future, with reports he is set to sacked should his side lose tomorrow’s crucial relegation six-pointer at home to Everton.
Both sides are in terrible form heading into the game, sat inside the Premier League relegation zone and off the bottom only on goal-difference.
The Toffees’ on-field issues are exacerbated by a crisis off the pitch, with the club’s board effectively banned from attending last weekend’s home defeat to Southampton over fears for their own safety.
The early part of Moyes’ second spell in charge was marred by similar turmoil and dissent towards the West Ham ownership but the Scot believes that, despite this season’s downturn in results, the culture of the club has changed during his reign.
“I think that West Ham as a football club, and maybe the people who work here a lot longer than me might have a better idea, I think it’s a more together club than it’s ever been,” Moyes said.
“I think the passing of [joint-chairman] David Gold, actually in some ways has pulled us all together as well because he’s now recognised as someone who gave everything he really could for the club and I think that now, there’s a board there who is very trusting of their manager.”
Moyes added: “I want to do better here at West Ham but we’ve also had a bit of time and what we’ve done in those two years for West Ham to be sixth in the Premier League, seventh, probably this time last year we were still being talked about for Champions League qualification.
“So from those points of view, I’d say those things are great. We put in more seats in the stadium to get more people in, now that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t had a level of success in the last couple of years.
“So I think there are an awful lot of things going on, but obviously we want to correct the things that have not been going so well.”
Moyes spent around £170million on eight new signings last summer as he looked to kick on and challenge the Premier League’s elite.
Instead, the Irons have gone backwards this term, with even marquee signings like Gianluca Scamacca, Lucas Paqueta and Nayef Aguerd yet to have a consistent impact, and on Friday Moyes admitted the £12m signing of Danny Ings was an “off-piste” move in a bid to arrest the club’s slide.
He continued: “Our thought [in the summer] was: ‘How do we step up to compete? How could we better than sixth? What players could make us better than sixth?’.
“I wanted to add more international players to the group which we did do. We weren’t bringing in players, with respect, from the Faroe Islands. We were bringing in Italian, Brazilian and German internationals.
“I think that when you do attempt to do something like that there is always a chance that you can find difficulty because you are trying to fix it and make it correct and make it better. I believe we are better, we just haven’t shown it yet on the field.”
He added: “Let me tell you, my plan when I came to West Ham was never to be in this position. But I’ve got myself in it and now I have to get myself out of it. I think that message is into the players and hopefully they show that tomorrow with their performance.”
