West Ham's David Moyes makes Europa Conference League statement amid Jose Mourinho comparison

West Ham United manager David Moyes has said should his side reach the final of the Europa Conference League this season would be his greatest career achievement.

The Hammers boss enters Thursday’s Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against AZ Alkmaar having not won a major trophy in his career, despite having managed 1,091 matches across his 25-year management career and having the third-highest amount of games managed in Premier League history.

However, in terms of career silverware, Moyes’ list is a rather short one, despite managing, West Ham, Manchester United, Everton and Real Sociedad among his list of clubs.

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Moyes has got far in European competitions before this season, most notably 12 months ago when reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League with West Ham.

However, the Scot has just got to get past Dutch side AZ Alkmaar to reach the Europa Conference League’s second ever final, where they will face either Fiorentina or Basel in Prague.

Last year, Jose Mourinho led Roma to win the inaugural edition of the competition against Dutch side Feyenoord and was left very emotional at doing so, becoming the first ever manager to win the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Moyes has said that reaching the final would be his greatest achievement in his career, but he would like to go one step further and not only reach the final, but win the competition as a whole too.

“To get to a European final, it could be my best one (achievement),” said Moyes. “In the past I've got to a Champions League quarter-final with Manchester United, lost on penalties in the quarter-final of the Europa League with Everton and last year we reached a semi-final here at West Ham.

“I want to try and take it a couple of steps further, and I would refer back to the serial winner Jose Mourinho – who found winning this trophy so special for him and his football club.

“If ever I needed somebody to show how hard it was to win a trophy, and he treated it as if it was so important.”

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