The prospect of David Moyes returning to West Ham appears to be gathering momentum in the press over the past few days.
Ordinarily, I would expect such a story to wither on the vine quite quickly, but the speculation is growing for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Moyes himself is not killing the rumour. As far as I can tell, he has been asked twice in the past week if he was expecting a call from West Ham Chairman David Sullivan and has joked that anything is possible.
The biggest factor, of course, is that Julen Lopetegui’s West Ham is much further down the Premier League table than anyone expected following the summer transfer splurge. His football is not noticeably better than Moyes’s, and understandably, the former gaffer’s cronies in the media are drooling at the prospect of continually pointing it out.
The last reason is that Sullivan has form, having given the Scotsman the Hammers job twice before. However, were he to be appointed a third time, it would be a massive admission of recruitment failure and would invite ridicule.
The Kretinsky Problem
There is also an issue with Daniel Kretinsky’s appointment of West Ham director of football Tim Steidten. Any return for Moyes would mean that Steidten would have to be dismissed, given the bad blood between the pair. This would mean David Sullivan undermining Kretinsky, which he technically could do as majority shareholder, but it would cause huge issues behind the scenes.
In short, if David Moyes returns to West Ham, then Tim Steidten has to leave. There is no way that Moyes would return and work under any conditions other than him having full control of transfers and pretty much everything else football related.
My own suspicion is that Steidten won’t remain at the London Stadium long enough to establish his five-year project, but that’s very different from kicking him out now.
So, while the mainstream media might be licking their lips at the prospect of a Moyes return to a humbled West Ham, I just can’t see it
