Unacceptable: David Moyes was furious with West Ham’s defeat at Brighton on the final day of the season
(Picture: REUTERS)A furious David Moyes once again hinted at a summer of significant overhaul despite West Ham’s encouraging season and accused his team of lacking “bottle” after they blew the chance to secure a Europa League return on the final day.
The Hammers began Sunday in seventh place but knew that they could leapfrog Manchester United should they win away at Brighton and Ralf Rangnick’s men fail to do so at Crystal Palace.
But while Wilfried Zaha’s strike ensured Palace did Moyes a favour at Selhurst Park, the Scot could only watch as his team failed to take advantage, surrendering a 1-0 lead to go down 3-1 at the Amex.
“That wasn’t what were about today,” Moyes said. “We’ve been resilient but we weren’t resilient today. When we were winning one-nil and we had the chance to go one place higher, the players didn’t show that toughness and that bottle that they’ve had before. I’m certainly not happy.”
The result sees a campaign in which the Irons reached the semi-finals of the Europa League end on a low note, though they will still be back in Europe next season in the third-tier Conference league.
Even during the high points of their European run, Moyes has been forthright in his insistence that major reinforcements are required this summer to improve both the depth and quality of his squad and claims the need may be even greater than he first realised.
“It doesn’t feel like I’ve done a good job this season at the moment because I wanted better,” he added. “I can only think of my last game and maybe in a few weeks’ time I’ll change my thoughts, but at the moment I’m angry with the players today because I’m not going to have the way they performed.
“Overall, if today was anything to go by, we have to do a lot more than I first thought. I want to make more memories, but I’ll need it to be much better than that or I won’t make many more, so the players are going to have to up from today’s performance.”
The game also saw Mark Noble make his 550th and final appearance for the club before his retirement and having been afforded an emotional home send-off against Manchester City last week, the Hammers skipper was honoured with a pre-match presentation on the south coast.
