West Ham and England legend Sir Geoff Hurst has spoken of his disappointment that the club decided to cut ties with David Moyes this summer.

Moyes departed east London having spent 5 years at the helm following his re-appointment in 2019, which resulted in a period of success as West Ham won our 1st major trophy since the 1960’s.

However the club decided to call time on Moyes’ tenure in the summer and have since appointed Julen Lopetegui as Head Coach, however Hurst feels that West Ham were too hasty and that Moyes should have been retained.

“Prior to him taking over, the recruitment process at West Ham was absolutely shocking,” the World Cup winner told OLBG. “Every manager at every level makes mistakes sometimes – Alf Ramsey did it with the odd mistake – but there were so many mistakes in recruitment at the Hammers prior to Moyes getting the job.

“There were players that were too old, past their best, injury prone – two players we got in Andy Carroll and Jack Wilshere – we got them and they were known to be injured before they joined. We got the right back from City, Zabaleta who was a very good pro but was past his best.

“We bought a player, I won’t mention his name, from a club in the division below us who let him go and we went and got him. Another player we went and bought and he was the most disliked player in the club, ever, at any level – just unbelievable.

“So Moyes takes over and got rid of most of those buys, we win the Europa Conference League and this year we were pretty much safe by Christmas. Changing the manager this summer, I just don’t agree with.

“Moyes should have stayed, he was a terrific manager and if they think a new manager having to get new players in – we know the players we have in attack are fantastic, defensively we are struggling a bit and I don’t think some of them are good enough for the Premier League – and will get us better than eighth or ninth next year then I will be surprised. I still support them greatly, though!”

Hurst also reflected on the clubs new kit for the new season, with Umbro making a nod towards our 1964 European Cup Winners Cup kit, which Hurst himself was famously a part of.

“The memories of it, the achievements we had and it is nice to go back to see what West Ham have done with the shirt this season – it also reminds us of how good a time that was at the club,” added Hurst.

“We hadn’t been at Wembley since 1923 when it was built, then we won the cup in 1964 and then the Cup Winners Cup and then three West Ham players in the England World Cup winning team. I remind people of that constantly.

“Bobby Moore was the best I ever played with and Martin Peters was a terrifically underrated player, he was my neighbour for four years, our gardens backed on to each other. Sometimes when he wasn’t well my wife would cook meals for him and hand them to his wife Cathy, my wife has spoken to her every day for 60 years.

“It was great to be at West Ham at that time.”