West Ham United: Sky Sports pundit makes ‘underlying discomfort’ verdict over David Moyes contract news
Dean Ashton thinks David Moyes is “fully deserving” of a new contract at West Ham but can understand the “underlying discomfort” some supporters have about the Scot’s management.
The Sun reporter Jack Rosser posted on X on 29 December that Moyes was set to sign a new two-and-a-half-year contract to remain at the London Stadium.
Moyes led the Hammers to Europa Conference League glory last season and has them sixth in the Premier League table with their latest result a drab 0-0 draw against Brighton (2 January).
Former Hammers striker Dean Ashton, now a Sky Sports pundit, has sympathy with those who don’t like Moyes’ style but has no doubt he has earned a new deal.
Speaking to Sky Sports News (3 January), Ashton said: “I mean it’s fully deserved in what he’s done at that football club.
“They haven’t and won’t spend the same resources as some of the other clubs in the Premier League so to be in the position that they’re in with a trophy behind them and the way he’s embedded the new signings he has to take a lot of credit for that.
“Recruitment has been key but he’s embedded them in the squad quickly. He fully deserves a new contract, it’s games like (Brighton) that some supporters will say we just don’t want to watch that when we’re at home and sixth in the league and they sit back the way that they did and not even look like they want to win the game at the end.
“I know David Moyes was frustrated with not having Aguerd and Kudus who he felt had been taken away a little early and unfairly considering the other teams in the Premier League got to take their players but they never really looked like they were trying to win the game and that is probably the only underlying discomfort for West Ham fans.
“That’s fair enough, when you watch those games it’s not an amazing watch, there are moments on the counter-attack they can look fantastic but there’s huge chunks of the game they don’t have the ball.”
A fair assessment
To any outsiders looking in, it would seem absolutely ridiculous that Moyes has not done enough to earn a new contract.
Okay, last season in the Premier League West Ham did not perform to the standard they know they can and had they not lifted the trophy in the Conference league then maybe this discussion would have been different.
But Moyes has led West Ham to europe in three straight seasons, has them in the knockout stages of the Europa League this term, and the team are sixth in the table after 20 games.
Where he does divide supporters is with his style of play. The Hammers can be a real nuisance for the so-called big teams because of their ability to defend resolutely and counter in devastatingly quick fashion.
That does not always translate as well against some of the teams at the lower-to-mid end of the table so often West Ham games can be a turgid experience at odds with the “West Ham Way”.
But any notion that Moyes doesn’t deserve a new deal is pretty misguided, sometimes it’s a case of be careful what you wish for.
In other West Ham news, Thilo Kehrer has arrived for his medical ahead of his exit from the London Stadium.