Frank McAvennie wants David Moyes to take Europa League seriously for West Ham fans
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie is praying David Moyes doesn’t repeat Slaven Bilic’s mistake of 2016 when West Ham crashed out of the Europa League in an embarrassing fashion.
After a sensational final season at the Boleyn Ground in 2015/16 in which the Hammers qualified for the Europa League, Bilic’s hard work was undone with an awful defeat in the play-off round to Romanian minnows Astra Giurgiu.
West Ham drew the first leg 1-1 in Romania but Astra won 1-0 at the London Stadium in the second leg as Bilic named a team of youngsters and fringe players.
McAvennie claims Moyes shouldn’t repeat that mistake this time around and suffer European humiliation with the Irons.
“The last time they played the Europa League qualifiers, they played all the young boys – supporters were raging,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.
“Bilic was playing all the young boys and I was thinking, ‘what?’. All he was thinking about was surviving in the Premier League and that’s not the way.
“There’s no way Moyes will do that because the players want to play in Europe, it’s part and parcel of being a top player.
“I hope they take it seriously and get into the group stages and draw some decent teams.
“The West Ham boys on tour will be great.”
Luckily for McAvennie, West Ham have been spared the possible embarrassment of not reaching the Europa League group stages because they’ve automatically qualified for them.
There won’t be an NK Domzale or Astra bleeping Goo Goo standing in our way this time around.
It remains to be seen who we’ll get in our group though because as it stands, the Irons are going to be in either pot two, three or four.
That means a big team could be drawn to play us like Lyon, Napoli, Lazio or Bayer Leverkusen.
We’d love to see Moyes take on one of those teams but we’d also love to qualify for the group. One big club and two minnows would be nice.
In other West Ham news, this “frustrated” fan favourite has dropped a hint about his future amid talk of him moving on.
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