Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham United team have just two days to prepare for Saturdays ‘must-win’ crisis match against Everton, which has already been somewhat cruelly labelled ‘El Sackio 2 – the sequel’ owing the the high stakes for both Sean Dyche and our own Lopetegui.
Former Manager David Moyes has added somewhat to the drama of the occasion, adding in hitherto-undisclosed details about his own road to the exit door at West Ham which began last winter. He was negotiating with West Ham’s chairman, remember, over a ‘new deal’ following the 2023 triumph in the Europa Conference League.
West Ham apparently originally made a new offer to Moyes in December 2023: As he reveals as part of the ‘stick to football’ podcast, reported in today’s Dailymail.co.uk: “The Scot claimed West Ham chairman David Sullivan revoked the original contract offer” in a massive about-face following bad losses.
Moyes goes onto explain: “We [West Ham] beat Arsenal on December 28, at The Emirates, and that day the club had offered me a new contract. We then went on a three-game losing streak, lost to Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, and I hadn’t signed the contract as I wasn’t sure if I should stay.
The contract wasn’t a great contract, but David Sullivan withdrew the contract just off the back of those results”
And the rest, as they say, is history. What Moyes omits, I think, when he says ‘the contract wasn’t a great contract’ is that it was as ‘head coach’ under Steidten not as a ‘Manager’ with all – encompassing control.
Which is why he didn’t sign it.
Intriguing that David Sullivan issued, and then tore up a contract offer in such a rapid U turn: How close did we come to getting three more years of Moyesball?
