Paul Merson warns West Ham United not to sack David Moyes or they will be relegated
Paul Merson believes West Ham will be relegated if they sack David Moyes and that it would be one of the biggest shocks in football.
The Hammers are in the relegation zone with 15 games remaining this season after 13 defeats from 23 league games, with reports suggesting Moyes could be sacked if they lose to Nottingham Forest this weekend (25 February).
But Merson, writing his column for Sky Sports (22 February) believes that would be a huge mistake and says that they will be safe if they keep him but will go down to the Championship if they choose to pull the trigger.
“West Ham will get out, but the other day [vs Tottenham] was worrying,” he said.
“I watched and thought ‘this is one of your biggest games of the season’, they didn’t play like it was. That’s a worry. Get rid of David Moyes and they will get relegated. Keep him and they will be okay. They will not go down with Moyes as manager, no chance.
“This league is all about good starts, if you get a good start you’ve got a good chance. Just look at Fulham, Brighton and Brentford. It’s so hard to recover once you are in trouble because you’re up against it straight away.
“It would be one of the biggest shocks in football if West Ham get relegated with David Moyes in charge – he’s thick-skinned and he’s got the experience to get them out of trouble.
“If Moyes got sacked tomorrow morning Leeds would walk over broken glass to go and get him in. You’ve got to put it in perspective. Leeds would have him in tomorrow morning. It’s a no-brainer.”
Madness
It’s almost as if Merson hasn’t watched a single West Ham game over the last 12 months, because this just isn’t true.
Our record since January 2022 in the Premier League is horrendous and had it been an entire Premier League season we likely would have been relegated, we just got lucky that it was two campaigns split in half.
The Europa League run last season has clouded the judgement of a lot of people, but what Moyes has churned out this season simply hasn’t been good enough and the players have stopped responding to him.
We can’t keep Moyes around because of what he has done in the past, we have to judge him on now, and right now we’re in real danger of going down if we don’t make a change.
If we end up keeping him and we stay up then that’s great, but it seems pretty clear at this point that the end of the road for Moyes at the London Stadium is nigh.