David Moyes sack decision mooted as West Ham United gear up for key striker transfer
There are “no guarantees” that David Moyes is going to remain West Ham manager past this season amid questions over a potentially key striker signing, according to Dean Jones.
The former Eurosport journalist told GiveMeSport on 3 November that if the club are to address a position of need in January they will have to navigate the tricky issue of “who they are tying to please” with the manager possibly gone before long.
He pointed to “friction” earlier in the summer between the Scot and technical director Tim Steidten over transfer targets, and suggested there remains “concern” over the suitability of what type of forward the Hammers would go after.
Jones said: “It’s just going to be a case of who are they trying to please if they sign a striker because, at the moment, we have no guarantees that David Moyes is around beyond this season.
“There is a long-term philosophy that West Ham are going to try to put in place for how this team looks over the course of the next four or five years, but those two things are hard to marry up.
“We saw that, in the summer, there was a bit of friction at one point between Moyes and Tim Steidten. Although they seem to have come through that moment, there is always the concern about what kind of No.9 they are going to want.
“Is it one that actually suits David Moyes’ style of football or is it one that is better adapted to just modern football in general?”
Sooner rather than later
If the 3-2 defeat to Brentford on Saturday (4 November) is anything to go by then West Ham are going to need to look at the latter type of players because the manager is currently not making a particularly strong case to stick around.
With his contact up at the end of the season and no extension currently on the cards he probably needs to worry more about even making it to that point if he keeps recording poor results in the Premier League.
His inherent conservatism was on display against the Bees as the Irons threw away a lead to come away with nothing in West London.
A strong start to the league campaign has now clearly gone by the wayside, with the current lack of goals from current starting forward Michail Antonio part of the problem.
West Ham tried to sign a striker in the summer and couldn’t get it over the line, but have swung and missed on the last two they managed to bring in for Moyes in Gianluca Scamacca and Danny Ings.
Decent results in Europe and a Carabao Cup run aren’t likely to be enough for him to keep his job amid top flight struggles two seasons running so Steidten will likely need an eye on who the next man in might be when he is evaluating striker targets for January or next summer.
In other West Ham news, the Irons have “set their sights” on a talented young left-back that is attracting interest from across Europe.