Gary Neville drops Champions League verdict for West Ham United
Gary Neville believes West Ham are in the race for the Champions League places in the Premier League but believes they will “just” miss out.
The Hammers have had a fantastic start to the season after winning the Europa Conference League last season, winning two out of two in the Europa League and sitting in 7th place after eight games in the Premier League.
But with the Premier League likely to get five places in next season’s Champions League rather than four due to the new format, Neville admitted on his podcast (9 October) that they’re in the race for that extra spot but doesn’t expect them to make it in the end.
“I said Villa at the start of the season so I’ll stick with them but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was Newcastle,” Neville said.
“Chelsea or Newcastle would be the fifth team at the moment. Man United, Villa, West Ham and Brighton will just miss out.
“If I was rewriting history from a few weeks ago I’d still say Arsenal, City, then Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea or Newcastle in fifth.
“I’m not changing my predictions but off what I’ve seen, Man United are a lot worse than I thought. Tottenham and Liverpool are better than I thought.”
Opportunity
There is a huge opportunity for West Ham to make it into the Champions League next season, because we’ve started fantastically and there is an extra space up for grabs.
There is a universally recognised “Big Six” in the league which immediately makes it tough, but you also now have the likes of Newcastle, Aston Villa and Brighton pushing them hard.
That’s essentially half the league pushing for those Champions League spots and nobody would be surprised if any of those teams finished there, despite it meaning that several other teams have likely underperformed.
West Ham being in the conversation is always good and our performances and squad depth mean that we have a great chance of making it, and proving to everyone that last year was just a blip rather than the norm.
The club is in a great place and on the up, so fans can be delighted with how things are going and we can only continue going on this process to see where it takes us.
In other West Ham news, club ‘favourites’ to sign England international with January loan move mooted.