Cracks had begun to appear for Moyes after Prague high

David Moyes will always have Prague. A quarter of a century into his managerial career, the Scot dad danced in the dressing room to the Proclaimers after winning his first major trophy and West Ham’s first piece of silverware for 43 years.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Eleven months on, Moyes’s departure had come to feel football’s worst-kept secret, and if all clubs have to engage in succession planning, it reflected doubly badly on them when Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim felt the need to apologise for meeting the reigning Europa Conference League champions. And while Julen Lopetegui will instead prove Moyes’ successor, part of his legacy is that a club who were in danger of dropping into the Championship when they sent an SOS to the Scot in 2019 now have a continental honour.

It is a reason, though far from the only one, why Moyes leaves West Ham as their best manager since John Lyall, probably their third finest ever. A recent record of just four wins in 2024, a distinctly unMoyesian defensive record that shows 70 goals conceded and a propensity to get thrashed that is out of character with the Scot’s usually resilient and organised sides suggest it is time to go. So too a climate where it felt that every defeat brought dissent against Moyes from the stands. That would not have been a basis to start next season.

And yet, even among West Ham’s recent struggles, it is worth noting that they are ninth, behind eight clubs with bigger budgets. If stylistic issues – low on possession, high on goals conceded – also form part of the picture, it is not underachievement. Beat Luton on Saturday and Moyes may get a 13th top-nine finish of his Premier League career; arguably only one – at Manchester United – was actually underperforming.