Stan Collymore urges West Ham United to ditch David Moyes and hire new manager for 2023/24 season
Stan Collymore has urged West Ham to ditch David Moyes as manager at the end of the season and hire a more attack-minded coach.
The Hammers made it through to their second consecutive European semi-final in midweek but are currently languishing in 15th in the Premier League table, just four points above the drop zone.
Speculation has been rife about the manager’s future, with it believed to be “increasingly likely” he will leave at the end of the season even if they stay up, but Collymore wrote in his Caught Offside column (21 April) that he feels the club should look to switch it up and tipped Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neill as a potential replacement.
“West Ham have got to decide what they want to be,” he wrote.
“Whether they want to go down the road of having a progressive younger coach of the type that Roberto De Zerbi or Thomas Frank are. Would they even go for a Gary O’Neill, one of West Ham’s own of course? Look at the job he’s done at Bournemouth.
“Or do West Ham’s board give David Moyes another year whereby they know what his style and substance is, but it’s a little bit samey and players can zone out?
“I think they are way better than 15th in the table because their European form has proved that. If it was me I’d be looking to twist and move on from David Moyes.
“You tap into his experience perhaps as a director of football or some kind of role to acknowledge what he’s done, because it’s been significant, but if they continue with Moyes, it would be a bit of a lazy choice because they should be getting more out of the squad than he is.
“There’s no reason why the club shouldn’t go for a proactive coach that plays front-foot, aggressive football.
“If De Zerbi, Frank and Unai Emery can get their clubs up into European positions, the West Ham board should be looking at things and saying we need someone who can do the same on a regular basis.
“I’m not convinced that Moyes can do that in the league anymore.”
Right sentiment
There’s no doubt that Collymore is spot on with his assessment of West Ham and David Moyes right now, but his suggestion of O’Neill is just a plain bad one.
O’Neill has done pretty well with Bournemouth, but he’s hardly ripped up any trees and they’ve spent heavily to be able to be in a very similar position to West Ham right now.
The other names mentioned like Frank, Emery and De Zerbi would be far more up the street of what fans would want to see, but considering our problems right now on the pitch it would be incredibly difficult to convince them to join.
However there are plenty of other options out there who could come in and do a great job with the amount of talent and quality we have in the squad.
Moyes has taken us as far as he can, and we now need someone to come in and take the reigns to push us to the next level. We just can’t get the appointment wrong like we did with Manuel Pellegrini.