TIME'S UP AGAIN... BUT MOYES WILL LEAVE CLUB IN A FAR BETTER PLACE

IF THE measure of a managerial job well done lies in leaving a club in a better place than it was found, then at West Ham David Moyes has pulled it off - twice.

- Malik Ouzia

Having been shelved once, in favour of Manuel Pellegrini, despite keeping the Hammers afloat from a perilous position, some would have been too proud to answer the call from a sheepish board to return. In December of 2019, however, Moyes saw an opportunity to repeat a rescue act and, this time around, to kick on.

Viewed from afar, the headline outcomes from the Scot's second spell in charge are objectively outstanding: there have been two top-seven finishes, three consecutive seasons of European football and, on a famous night in Prague last summer, the quenching of the club's 43-year trophy thirst.

There has been a reputational uplift, too, this now a club capable of attracting talents like Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus from the continent, even if perhaps only en route to bigger things, and one able to tie Jarrod Bowen, one of the Premier League's most electrifying forwards, down to a seven-year deal.

While the London Stadium will never be the Boleyn Ground, Moyes's teams have given it its greatest non-athletics nights and turned it into a place where watching football is more than a just-about-tolerable pursuit.