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David Moyes has said that he would be “deluding himself” if he expected West Ham to compete at the top for six or seven years.
The Scotsman, 59, made the comments while discussing coping with pressure as a Premier League manager on Mike Calvin’s Football People.
Despite an outstanding run to the Europa League semi-final last season, concerns are growing behind the scenes about West Ham’s domestic form with the Hammers perilously close to the relegation zone.
The coach also described how smaller clubs can maintain a competitive edge and the biggest ‘wow’ moment of his career.
On how his experience has changed his perspective, Moyes said: “I think West Ham have had a brilliant three seasons.
David Moyes (pictured) has said he would be “deluding himself” to expect West Ham to compete at the top for six or seven years.
Despite an outstanding run to the Europa League semi-finals last season, concern is growing behind the scenes about West Ham’s domestic form with the Hammers close to the drop.
“We avoided relegation, we took them to Europe the following year, we reached the semifinal of a European competition, we finished seventh the second year.
“So the prospect made me say yes, you know, if you’re going to come to West Ham and expect to spend six or seven years competing at the top, I think you’re probably kidding yourself and I think anyone with real football intelligence probably will agree to that.
He continued: ‘Because you only look at the sides at the moment, you look at the form of Newcastle and other teams, Brighton have had an incredible run in what they’ve done. Brentford and Fulham are doing very well this year.
“So, you don’t have the right to be there all the time, and when you’re a club that’s probably never been there, there’s a good chance you can leave.”
“So we’ve had an amazing couple of years, which means I’m more relaxed and if it didn’t work out here at West Ham, that’s fine, you know, you take it and that would be it.”
“The most important thing for me at West Ham is that I see they have a lot of potential to improve, improve and be a really important club.” It is an important club, but it becomes a really challenging club and I think that in the last two years we have shown that.”
Moyes also spoke about the current state of football and how smaller clubs can still maintain a competitive edge.
He said: ‘I think as a football club, I think there is a lot of room for improvement. I think we can do things better here. I think in the future, I hope I can help or guide them. Show them the way I think we should move forward and use my experience to help.
Moyes believes West Ham have proven to be a ‘challenging club’ in recent years
‘I think there are some clubs following some [different] paths. So Brighton or Brentford could be following a different route to other clubs. But I think you’re right about how West Ham can compete with the buying power of maybe three or four clubs in the Premier League.
‘We probably don’t have that purchasing power. So what we could try and do then is find a way to get good players and identify them early, working on them.
“You also have to have the belief that money is not always going to be the reason why you are successful in football.” If it does… I’m not saying I wouldn’t want to be involved in this, but I hope there’s a chance that smaller teams will improve or teams with less money will win it. [the league]. Leicester City won the league a few years ago.
The Scotsman says his biggest ‘wow’ moment was working with a young Wayne Rooney (R)
We have seen, for example, that Arsenal is not really talked about. I don’t think there is any expert who names Arsenal as a possible Premier League winner. So that means that football changes and is unpredictable. So I think we have to hope that the clubs that have all the money, it doesn’t always work for them.’
On his biggest ‘wow’ moment and his hopes for the future, Moyes said: ‘My biggest ‘wow’ moment was Wayne Rooney when I was 16 years old.
“I’m only saying that because we still talk about Wayne scoring in practice and we all look at each other and wonder ‘Did he really do that?’ When he was only 16 years old.
You’ve had those incredible moments, but I think now I’m looking, I hope to succeed. I’m still motivated by the fact that the best is yet to come, I still have room for a trophy in my house somewhere.
“I still have room to try to get a few games if possible, so that drives me to keep going and hopefully somewhere we’ll pull through.”
Listen to the full David Moyes interview on the latest edition of the BT Sport podcast, ‘Michael Calvin’s Football People’, available tomorrow on all major podcast platforms.
Every Thursday, award-winning journalist and author Michael Calvin interviews former players, coaches, owners, referees and more, providing unique insights into the game: btsport.com/pods