GRITTY BUBBLES IN THE AIR
Moyes was recently Public Enemy No.1 and now he’s on the brink of being only third Hammers boss to lift trophy but says: I’m no legend
DAVID MOYES will go from the loneliest walk in football to tracing the footsteps of legends in the space of 60 days if he ends West Ham’s 43-year wait for a trophy tonight.
Among Hammers managers, only Ron Greenwood and John Lyall have troubled the open-top bus depot in 128 years of bubbles and bitter pills.
But fewer than nine weeks since a sizeable portion of fans were calling for his removal, with a ‘Moyes Out’ banner unfurled in the away end at Fulham, Moyes is at the gates of the East end pantheon.
If he lands his first major trophy in 1,097 games in the Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina here, he will be up there with Greenwood, Lyall, Bobby Moore, Sir Geoff Hurst, Dirty Den and Dame Vera Lynn in Cockney legend.
And yet Moyes refuses to see himself being cast as an immortal – even if he becomes the pearly king of Prague. “I don’t think of myself as any different to anyone else,” said the Irons boss. “I’m really fortunate, privileged and thankful to be given an opportunity to be a football manager, to have the opportunity to go this far in my career and to be on a stage like this.
“But I don’t ever really think of myself as being a legend or any words like that. I’d just like to be known as a football manager who’s serious about his job and tries to do the best he possibly can, week in week out, to prepare teams to be competitive. I’d like to be known as much for that as much as I would the word legend, really.”
Sorry, Dave, but there are going to be 20,000 geezers out in the Czech Republic – most of them without tickets – who would happily have you consecrated as a saint if they tie claret-and-blue ribbons round the pot for the first time since Sir Trevor Brooking’s stooping header saw off Arsenal in the 1980 FA Cup final.
What he does deserve, however, is respect – which looked in short supply only two months ago when that banner in the Putney end at Craven Cottage “hurt” like a bag of cockles and winkles in the chops. He admitted: “I’ve got to say it wasn’t a good time. Did I feel lonely? Hugely.”
It wasn’t his first lacerating experience as a manager. Moyes was given only spare change to spend and short shrift as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Manchester United, lasted only a year at Real Sociedad in Spain, and couldn’t find the handbrake at basket-case Sunderland.
In between those jobs, he worked for UEFA on their technical committee – last night he walked into a dressing room decorated with West Ham trimmings on the eve of a European final. “It felt slightly surreal,” he said. “I’m very fortunate that UEFA, over the years, have helped me when I wasn’t in work.
“To turn up here as a manager knowing that your team is going to be playing is a big thrill for me. I really hope I can take it to the next level, which is winning.
“When you start out as a coach, it’s a case of: ‘Can you reach a final?’ Hopefully it’s the start. I’ve always said I think the best years are to come, but I’m certainly enjoying this one at the moment.
“To be a coach for as long as I have means I must have done something right. Longevity is difficult. There are lots of good young coaches starting out but let’s see if they can do 20 to 25 years in the business.”
West Ham finished top of the fair-play table in the Premier League, and Moyes will not order a more cynical approach despite Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano’s admission his side may resort to tactical fouls to stop the Hammers’ fast breaks.
Moyes said: “There’s two cultures in the game, Italian and English, and I hope we can get the right balance. I’ve every faith in my team to go about the job in the right way.”
He was also coy about whether Lukasz Fabianski would be summoned from the bench as a penalty specialist to replace Alphonse Areola if it goes to a shoot-out.
If he plays that trump card and it works, Moyes is right – he won’t be a legend in pieand-mash heartlands. He would be revered as a god.
To be a coach for as long as I have means I must be doing something right