DAVID TENANT
With survival now probable, Moyes wants long-term stay
HIS future won’t be finalised until the end of the season but there were a few hints that David Moyes WILL be sticking around at West Ham.
First, joint-chairman David Sullivan announced he hopes to keep boss Moyes for “many, many years.” Then the Scot revealed he had been central to discussions about a recruitment revamp at the London Stadium.
He certainly didn’t sound like a man who was planning on going anywhere.
“Ultimately I’ll be judged on winning games,” the former Manchester United and Everton manager said.
“I want the West Ham fans to think that David Moyes is the right man for the job. I want the West Ham board to think David Moyes is the right man, and I also want to see that West Ham is the right club for David Moyes because I’m ambitious.
“I want to be challenging against the big boys.
“It took me years to build Everton up and in the end I got a job (at United) which I thought would make things easier to win cups and trophies.
“I’m happy to do that again but you need to have the tools so I need to know that when it comes to it we can do a bit of damage here.”
Moyes (right) might still need to be convinced but you can see why the minds of the Hammers hierarchy are already made up.
He is closing in on objective No.1 – survival – having hauled West Ham out of the bottom three and up to mid-table. They are now more defensively organised and their one defeat in their last eight league games at Brighton looks like a blip.
Moyes is getting the best out of £25million club-record signing Marko Arnautovic and goals out of former Manchester United hit-man Javier Hernandez.
The Mexican striker headed West Ham into a first-half lead with his third goal in four league games before the outstanding Arnautovic – fit-again and sporting a bold new hairdo – sealed the win with a late second.
Defender James Collins said: “If he keeps performing like that he can come to work in a Batman outfit and I wouldn’t care!
“If he can stay fit and performing like that we’ve got a massive chance of moving up Premier League table.”
Watford, badly hit by injuries, now have a fortnight off and manager Javi Gracia said the break was very welcome
“Now we have time for injured players to recover,” he said. “A couple of weeks to work.
“It wasn’t our best performance today but I am focused on the next one, against Everton, and I’m sure next time we will be better.”