West Ham were snubbed by Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini and Rafa Benitez… now they have hit rock bottom with David Moyes
It's the Scot's last chance in the top flight after last season's relegation with Sunderland
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THEY started at the top and ended up at rock bottom.
One by one the calls went into Carlo Ancelotti (“not interested”), Roberto Mancini (“not interested”) and Rafa Benitez (“not interested”).
It left West Ham with David Moyes.
The ex-Manchester United manager is last man standing after three of the biggest names in the game turned their noses up at the Hammers.
You cannot blame them because this has turned into a basket case of a football club.
Everything about West Ham — Premier League status, the stadium, the management — has a temporary feel about it.
Surely this is the last chance for Moyes. He needed this job, thrust back into the Premier League limelight after walking out on Sunderland at the end of last season.
The Scot took them down and yet, somehow, everybody but Moyes was to blame for them finishing bottom of the pile last season.
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Moyes, his reputation shredded by spells at United, Real Sociedad in Spain’s La Liga and, most recently Sunderland, had nowhere left to go.
The Irons have taken him in, turning to the former Everton boss after Slaven Bilic was finally put out of his misery by David Sullivan yesterday.
Moyes now has to prove himself all over again. His days at Preston, when he seemed to build a club with his bare hands, and his long-serving spell at Goodison Park seem so long ago.
United, the biggest job of them all, proved ruinous.
He has never recovered, never stopped talking about the miserable season he spent after taking over a team of multiple title winners.
United was just too big for him.
Rio Ferdinand stuck the knife in, criticising the manager because he banned the players from eating chips the night before games.
It seems so trivial, but United’s players failed to respond to the methods Moyes had relied on when he was at Goodison. Even Ryan Giggs, added to the coaching staff while he was winding down his playing career, distanced himself from Moyes in the final throes.
They did not rate him — but they did not hate him.
He remains convinced he was axed too soon after executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward got excitable at the prospect of hiring Louis van Gaal.
That is just a bitter memory for Moyes.
His most recent managerial appointment, spending a season working for Ellis Short at the Stadium of Light, was a catastrophe.
Moyes left Sunderland last season with another bloodied nose — taking them down after a pitiful attempt to stay in the Premier League.
He even beat the pundits to it at the start of last season, predicting a relegation battle just two matches into the campaign.
They went down with 24 points — 16 from safety after a shocking season under his management.
West Ham, in that lofty way West Ham have about them, are convinced Moyes is inheriting a better group of players.
But they are 18th in the Premier League table, slipping into the relegation zone after important wins at the weekend for Bournemouth and Everton.
This will be another tough gig. Moyes will be working at a club where much of the important business is done in public, whether that be chairman Sullivan’s pronouncements in the match programme, or his son, Jack, who seems to live his life on Twitter.
Moyes has to motivate the same players who threw in the towel during a shambolic 4-1 defeat against Liverpool at the London Stadium on Saturday. They were embarrassed and humiliated, played off their own pitch by Jurgen Klopp’s side.
And the Premier League fixtures over the next few weeks will haunt the new manager. Before the year is out, West Ham will face Moyes’ old club Everton. Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal follow in succession before another trip to Tottenham on December 31.
Moyes has the job of lifting them clear of danger. Chances are, the natives will not be that into him.
