Simon Jordan impressed with West Ham growth under David Moyes
West Ham started their Europa League group stage campaign on a winning note, securing a 2-0 victory against Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday.
Goals from Michail Antonio and Declan Rice gave the Hammers all three points in their Group H opener, and David Moyes will fancy his side’s chances of progressing beyond the group stages.
Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan is loving West Ham’s progress under the Scot, and his ambitions have impressed him.
Speaking on talkSPORT (as shared on their official Twitter account on Friday morning), he said: “This West Ham team is a directly relatable product to David Moyes, more so than any other manager, because he’s not just pleased to be in Europe, he’s building a team to be in Europe.
“Other teams getting into Europe, secondary teams look at it as a little bit of a chalice because they use their squad in a different way than previously, and most sides in this situation find themselves compromising the domestic league.
“He’s on full throttle. He sees West Ham as a project that has a huge opportunity in it, which means the owners are going to be hanging to his tails and not the other way round. What a place to be.”
Great project
Moyes has turned around the fortunes of West Ham, keeping them up during his first stint and returning to do so again before guiding them to a sixth-placed finish in the Premier League last term.
The Hammers have come close to playing in the Europa League before, but could not make it to the group stages from the qualifying rounds under Slaven Bilic.
They are finally in the competition and will now be aiming to go far and challenge for it.
They are not one of the favourites to win it, but they have the quality in their squad to come up against any of the big sides.
West Ham will be targeting a top-four finish this term after going narrowly close to qualifying for the Champions League last term, but whether they have enough squad depth to challenge across all competitions and achieve their lofty goals remains to be seen.
They have an ambitious and brilliant manager in Moyes, though, and this team remains capable of punching above their weights again this term and going forward.
In other West Ham news, Solskjaer has shared a Jesse Lingard update ahead of weekend’s Hammers reunion.
Be sure to follow West Ham Zone on Facebook and Twitter for 24/7 updates on the Hammers and more exclusive interviews with Frank McAvennie.