Alan Curbishley has sympathised with David Moyes and claims West Ham fans “should be careful what you wish for” after some have demanded he face the sack.
Curbishley is someone who knows the difficulties that come with being West Ham manager better than anyone, having been the man who led the club through “the great escape”.
As a former manager himself, he believes the fact that Moyes has kept the club up twice after coming in mid season, and then leading the Hammers to their first major trophy since 1980 should be more than enough to keep him in at the helm.
“He’s done a fantastic job,” he told GB News. “There have been two occasions when he’s gone in there and had to save them from a relegation scrap. He’s got them to the top seven, top half of the table regularly and now [is] a European Cup winner, etc.”
The former West Ham midfielder and manager finds it “hard to fathom” that some fans have been calling for Moyes to face the sack. “I do understand the West Ham fans,” he conceded, “they do talk about possession-based football, because everyone’s talking about that now and West Ham don’t normally dominate possession.”
“But when you start considering possession, it’s mainly in the back four anyway, passing around between the keeper and the back for it’s not in attacking situations,” he said, warning that the East London faithful “should be careful what you wish for.”
Unsurprisingly, there has been plenty of speculation surrounding the Scotsman’s future, with it being unknown whether he will be offered another contract after his expires next Summer, or if he would even accept it. Either way, it seems likely that the club will stick with him for the remainder of the season.
Despite believing the club should stick with Moyes, the 66-year-old did consider the fact that maybe the club is trying to move to the next level now they’ve “established the stadium.”
“It’s a massive club now. Perhaps the expectation level is more than just the results.”
When asked about the pressures of being a manager in the modern day, Curbishley was eager to admit that it is much more difficult being a manager today than back in 2008. “I just think that with more and more mobile phones, you probably can’t even go out for a meal. Sometimes as a manager you fear to go out, or may not have been out for a month or so, because of the result.”
“Don’t get me wrong, the rewards are fantastic now. In the Premier League especially,” Alan concluded. “But you have to take that with it. It’s probably a lot more [pressurised] when I was managing because it’s so much more high profile.”
Recently, Moyes has been very open in talking about the effect that seeing “Moyes out” banners had on him last season, and that potentially is something that is not spoken about enough in football: the effect of the fans on the manager.
No matter your opinion on his football, David Moyes has given us fans memories that we will never forget, etching his name into East London’s history and that makes it easy to understand why Curbishley is so eager to defend his corner as an ex manager. If this is to be Moyes’ last season in the West Ham dugout, let’s hope he can go out on a high to be remembered with admiration amongst those in Claret and Blue.
By Charlie Bass
