OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini may still be West Ham manager but that doesn’t stop speculation about his potential replacement in his tracks.
The Hammers haven’t won any of their last seven games and have slumped to 17th in the Premier League, so it’s no surprise that there have been reports flying around concerning who could take his job at the London Stadium.
The Sun reported on Tuesday that the Hammers are to challenge Everton when it comes to making David Moyes their next manager, with the Scot a clear contender to replace Pellegrini if the club’s brass end up having to pull the trigger on him.
Alan Brazil remarked on West Ham and Everton both being interested in Moyes and pointed out that both clubs not only knew what they were getting with him, as he has previously managed both but pointed out the Scot was a safe pair of hands.
“They know what they’re getting, he’s a safe pair of hands David,” said Brazil on talkSPORT (6:09am, Wednesday, November 27th).
Brazil’s remarks show why Moyes is a reported contender for the Hammers’ manager position if it opens up, as given the situation the club could find themselves in, you’d want someone you knew what you were getting from and you’d want someone you could trust.
The Hammers are currently 17th and given that Pellegrini likely has to suffer a few more bad results before being dumped, then it’s like his successor will have to deal with a relegation battle.
Not only has Moyes proven he is capable of steering a club clear of relegation, the club he proved that with was the Hammers, so David Sullivan and David Gold would know he’s up to the task.
The 56-year-old took over from Slaven Bilic during the 2017-18 season when the Hammers were in the relegation zone, and guided them to safety with two games to spare.
The Hammers ended up finishing 13th under Moyes, with the Scot recording nine wins and 10 draws out of the 31 games he oversaw, meaning he had a win percentage of 29% (Source: BBC Sport).
While Moyes’ win percentage and known-style of football isn’t inspiring, you have to take into account that he took over effectively an under-performing team, and wasn’t overly helped in January as the players that arrived were Jordan Hugill, Joao Mario and Patrice Evra. (Source: Transfermarkt)
Mario may have been a useful talent, but he took so long to warm up having not played Premier League football before that you can hardly argue he made Moyes’ job easier.
When you consider that Sullivan and Gold witnessed Moyes rescue West Ham before with the players he had available to him then, and the squad has only got better, based on Brazil’s remarks it’s easy to see why he is a contender.
