West Ham Require 'Soft Reset' After Falling Short of Europa League Qualification
In the aftermath of West Ham’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on the final day of the Premier League season, David Moyes spoke openly about his disappointment in the team’s performance.
“They know I’m not happy,” the Scotsman explained. “I don’t care if it’s the first or last game: they must perform and I’m not happy with that performance. If we play like that [next season], we’ll be challenging at a different part of the table.”
The 59-year-old’s comments marked a significant shift in tone from the rest of the campaign. Moyes was mythed after watching his team whiff on the chance to steal Manchester United’s place in the Europa League. And he didn’t pull any punches.
“It doesn’t feel like I’ve done a good job this season at the moment because I wanted better. I can only think of my last game and maybe in a few weeks’ time I’ll change my thoughts, but now I’m angry with the players because I’m not going to have the way they performed,” Moyes added.
“Overall, if today was anything to go by, we have to do a lot more [in the transfer window] than I first thought. I want to make more memories, but I’ll need it to be much better than that or I won’t make many more, so the players are going to have to [move] up from today’s performance.”
Moyes said the quite part out loud: following back-to-back top seven finishes in the Premier League, the Hammers must undergo a soft reset this summer or risk being overtaken by superrich Newcastle United and a potentially resurgent Leicester City.
(It’s also fair to be concerned about Aston Villa’s rise: they’ve signed a pair of absolute studs in Diego Carlos and Boubacar Kamara.)
West Ham’s recruitment department, which is ultimately headed by the club’s manager, has a string of key decisions to make over the months ahead, starting in the final third.
Sebastien Haller (remember him?) signed with Ajax an astonishing 502 days ago, leaving Michail Antonio as West Ham’s only senior centre-forward. If not this summer, when will Moyes & Co. settle on a long-term solution up front?
Following the retirement of Mark Noble and expiration of Alex Kral’s loan deal, West Ham are now very thin in central midfield. Although it’s possible that Manuel Lanzini could be part of the solution, as I wrote for Breaking The Lines, he isn’t a panacea. They need bodies.
There are also questions to answer at full-back. Aaron Cresswell turns 33 in December and enters the offseason in the doghouse following a pair of red card performances in the Europa League: is he the past, present, or future at left-back?
And what about Ben Johnson: is he Cresswell’s readymade replacement or will he continue to compete with Vladimir Coufal at right-back? Either way, he’s surely earned his shot at being a first-team regular.
The battle for the net between the soon-to-be-extended Lukasz Fabianski and the soon-to-be-signed Alphonse Areola is also worth bearing in mind.
Clearly, there’s plenty for Moyes to mull over this summer and we haven’t addressed the elephant(s) in the room yet: will Declan Rice (and Jarrod Bowen) remain in Stratford for 2022-23? With the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City circling, is it time for West Ham to sell high on their prized asset(s)? Maybe.
I’ll be writing about the Rice dilemma soon, I promise!
All in all, we’re in for a wild ride this summer and those pulling the strings at the London Stadium cannot afford to miss a step. They can’t sit on their hands again.
When asked whether falling into the Europa Conference League would impact his transfer plans before the season finale, Moyes said: “I don’t think so. We’ll try and add to the squad of we can, but we have a really good team at the moment. If we can get another couple of players, we will do that.”
It’s difficult to believe that West Ham only need “another couple (four?) of players” to sustain their level of performance next season: they’re already one of the oldest squads in the Premier League and teams around them in the standings are tooling up for a big push next term.
As the club’s transfer plans effectively revolve around Rice’s future, it’s tricky to predict what the summer window might hold for West Ham. However, we can work backwards based on what we know about expiring contracts and loans:
Angelo Ogbonna and Fabianski are very likely to be handed new deals
Areola is expected to sign with the club permanently
Andriy Yarmolenko and Ryan Fredericks will leave as free agents
Kral’s loan is expiring and won’t be extended
Noble is retiring ☹
Connor Coventry (on loan at MK Dons) will compete for a place in the first-team squad
Sonny Perkins, Jamal Baptiste, and Harrison Ashby (PL2/U18) will try to crack the senior roster
Also of note: the club is reportedly willing to listen to offers for Saïd Benrahma and Tomas Soucek, per @ExWHUemployee, paving the way for even more upheaval. As a result, all bets are off.
(FWIW, it’d be a major mistake to sell Soucek this summer. He’s due to rebound in 2022-23.)
West Ham’s pursuit of Champions/Europa/Conference League qualification will be much trickier next season, especially with Newcastle on the rise. Improving the squad will also play a significant role in keeping Rice (and Bowen) in the East End, making this summer a make-or-break mission for Moyes. He can’t afford to strike out.
Next week, I’ll be writing about how West Ham should approach their soft reset. Stay tuned by subscribing to the newsletter:
If you wouldn’t mind sticking around for a minute, I have a couple of articles I’d like to bump before you head off, starting with some Gustavo Hamer analysis:
(For what’s it worth, Hamer should be on West Ham’s radar: he’s performed excellently in the Championship and is destined to play in the top-flight. Why not in claret and blue?)
If you like ice hockey, here’s my semi-optimistic take on Team GB’s relegation at the World Championship:
That’s all for today… but keep an eye on Breaking The Lines because I’ve got a long-read about a younger goalkeeper I’m very excited about in the works.
Thanks for reading!