Moyes set for West Ham deal
DAVID MOYES will be confirmed as the new manager of West Ham today to shake up a dressing room that senior figures at the club felt was not being driven hard enough by Slaven Bilic. Bilic’s tenure ended in a meeting with David Sullivan yesterday morning and the club moved immediately to secure the services of Moyes, who flew in from Qatar
yesterday morning for talks in London.
Moyes, 54, is set to sign a two-and-half year contract that will include a break clause at the end of this season if the Scot fails to make an impact.
His arrival will certainly lift the intensity of training and, for good measure, he has turned to Stuart Pearce, a former West Ham player he hopes he can persuade to join his coaching staff.
Alan Irvine is also expected to team up again with the former Everton and Manchester United boss, while Chris Woods was the one member of the Bilic backroom team to survive the axe yesterday. Moyes had the former Rangers star as his goalkeeping coach at Everton and United.
Sportsmail understands Moyes has agreed to a deal until the end of the season that is heavily weighted towards a £2million bonus for keeping the club in the Premier League after Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to Liverpool saw them slip into the bottom three.
His appointment also rules him out of the running for the vacant Scotland job, although he was not thought to be in serious contention.
Moyes has recently expressed his determination to avoid relegation for the second time in his career after failing to keep Sunderland in the top flight last season. Not to mention a desire to repair the damage of a difficult year in the Wearside.
‘That was my first-ever relegation and I hope it’ll be my last,’ he said. ‘I want that winning feeling again.’
Moyes has the international break to acquaint himself with the club and then three games that at least represent a decent chance of getting some precious points on the board.
A trip to Watford is followed by an encounter with Leicester at the London Stadium before they face Everton at Goodison Park on November 29.
After that, however, things get tougher, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal their next three games.
But Moyes will walk into the East London club confident of his methods and proud of his record, despite some of the challenges he has faced in England and in Spain since leaving Everton in 2013.
‘I think my last match was 499 games as a Premier League manager,’ he told Sportsmail recently. ‘I’ve maybe got 880 or 890 as a manager in total. I think my record will stand up as well as anybody’s.’
On the decision to dismiss Bilic after almost two-and-a-half years in charge, West Ham said there was an urgent need ‘to move forward positively and in line with their ambition’.
A statement from joint-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold said Bilic, the 49-year-old former Croatia coach, had conducted himself with ‘honesty and integrity’, while the decision to terminate his employment had been made ‘with disappointment and heavy hearts’.
They added: ‘We see this as an exciting opportunity to appoint a quality manager to the position to inject fresh ideas, organisation and enthusiasm into a very talented squad.
‘We will now focus our efforts on bringing in a manager we believe can get the best out of the squad of players and steer the club towards the top half of the table as quickly as possible.’
Speaking to reporters as he left West Ham’s training ground, Bilic said: ‘There are no hard feelings. I can be very proud of my work here.
‘We didn’t start this crucial season well. As in many clubs across Europe, the manager is the one who pays the price. It’s a very logical move.’
West Ham also announced that Bilic’s coaching assistants Nikola Jurcevic, Edin Terzic, Julian Dicks and Miljenko Rak had also left with immediate effect.