Cottee: Moyes can join the Hammers legends
The Old Firm had better watch out as West Ham United are on a Europa League mission, and it’s all thanks to David Moyes.
The Hammers head to Rapid Vienna on Thursday night hoping for three points to win the group and secure their place in the last-16 and ensure European football after Christmas.
Celtic and Rangers will have to go some to catch up with Moyes’ team later in the competition, but the Hammers are flying high right now in London’s East End.
In the Premier League’s top four, enjoying their best run in Europe for 41 years and knocking both Manchester clubs out of the Carabao Cup en route to the quarter-finals, the Scot has really got the Hammers motoring.
West Ham legend Tony Cottee is one of those loving the ride.
And he would like nothing more than for Moyes to lead his beloved club to their first piece of silverware since Sir Trevor Brooking’s header won the FA Cup for them in 1980.
“If it was a choice between making the Champions League in the top- four or winning a cup, I would love to win the Europa League and do both,” Cottee told The Sunday Post.
“I would sacrifice a few places in the league if we were to get to the final and win the Europa League.
“Then you would get all the enjoyment of a cup run – West Ham fans do love a cup run –and we are desperate to win something after 41 years.
“So winning the Europa League to get into the Champions League would tick all the boxes.”
Cottee scored
146 goals across two spells at Upton Park, including the 1985/ 86 season in which he and Frank
Mc Av e n n i e netted 46 times a s We s t Ham finished a clubbest third in the old First Division.
Steeped in claret-andblue, the former striker has attended every home game this season as a spectator, so has seen at first-hand the strides the team has made.
And he wants Moyes to be given the chance to write his name into Hammers folklore.
“I want David to do what John Lyall and Ron Greenwood did and build a legacy at the club and have us competing consistently,” said Cottee.
“Every decade since the 1970s, West Ham have been relegated at least once and I don’t want that anymore for my football club.
“I want it to be a stable, we l l - r u n club that is achieving on the pitch.
“They’ve got the right manager in David Moyes and hopefully the board will see that and give David the longterm contract to match that.”
This is Moyes’ second spell in charge at the London Stadium. Originally brought in to replace Slaven Bilic in 2017 and keep the Hammers up, he successfully guided them to 13th by the end of the season.
But that was not enough to satisfy West Ham’s owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, who opted to bring in ex-manchester City boss
Manuel Pellegrini instead.
However, when Pellegrini flopped, Moyes was brought in for a second salvage job in December 2019.
And the Hammers have not looked back since. Cottee just wishes that there had not been a gap of 18 months to halt Moyes’ progress.
“What West Ham needed the first time David came to the club was an experienced manager, who could stabilise the club and get his ideas, message and philosophy running right through the club,” he explained.
“He wasn’t selected by Sir Alex Ferguson to replace him at Manchester United for no reason. He got that for what he did at Everton and we needed that model at West Ham.
“We’d had the trauma of moving grounds and the aggravation and resentment amongst the fans about going to the London Stadium.
“David kept us in the Premier League and he should have been given the chance to do that then because West Ham did not need Manuel Pellegrini.
“The club needs David to do what he did up at Everton and stay at West Ham for 11 years, try to be consistent in the league, trying to qualify for Europe and maybe win a cup or two, although that is easier said than done.”
With league games to come against Manchester City and Chelsea in the next fortnight, West Ham’s credentials are certainly going to be tested.
But Cottee is a fan of this steely version of the team.
“The strength comes from the manager,” he adds. “The team is organised, there is a good spirit and they know what they are doing for things like set- pieces, with West Ham at the top of that list.
“You can’t praise David enough for what he is doing.”