West Ham United now want Reims boss Will Still to replace David Moyes
West Ham are honing in on Reims boss Will Still as a replacement for David Moyes to start next season, according to Foot Mercato.
The 30-year-old has been receiving plenty of attention in Ligue 1 after he took his side on a 17-game unbeaten league run that stretched back to his appointment on 13 October before it was ended in a 2-1 defeat to Marseille on Sunday (19 March).
As a West Ham fan the links between him and the struggling Irons have been inevitable, and it appears that the club has taken notice, despite the man himself refusing to be drawn on a move to East London in an interview on talkSPORT last week (15 March).
Foot Mercato report on 20 March they are “thrilled” by the news that Still’s favourite club is West Ham and his rising profile in France has put the Hammers “under the spell” of the Belgian-born coach.
David Moyes has struggled badly this year and has the club just a point off the bottom of the table, but while he has been backed by the board to continue this season they are now apparently lining up a replacement for the summer in the form of Still, although Reims will fight to keep him.
Change ahead
It may be too late by the end of the season based on the state of the relegation battle at the moment, although West Ham have a game or two on all the other sides who have been dragged in.
And it could be considered a risk to turn to a man so young who is just now doing his FIFA Pro Licence course, with Reims fined €25,000 [£21,800] every game he was in charge until recently.
However, the Ligue 1 side took that risk when they made him the youngest manager in any of the top five European leagues earlier this season and that has paid off for them.
Without a major turnaround in form before the end of the season it is difficult to see Moyes remaining if he only just scrapes top flight survival, and even winning the Europa Conference League might not be enough.
The board’s reluctance to make a change in-season has reportedly been down in part to the fact that they can’t find any suitable alternatives [Guardian, 6 March].
But if West Ham limp over the line at the end of the year they will have had an entire season of underachievement to get out there and identify one, and it appears they have finally found someone they like the look of in Still.