Farewell at Chelsea
“The fans have been great but I feel bad for them,” West Ham manager David Moyes told Sky Sports.
“I don’t normally have teams who get beaten like this but we are lacking some ingredients – mental toughness and leadership to get better results, or at least not get hammered.
“The fans played their part and I can only say I’m really sorry for how it played out.”
Well, these have been massive years for West Ham. But now they need a fresh start next season, with a massive overhaul for an ageing squad.
West Ham 1-0 up at HT
West Ham’s second goal, the equaliser after Liverpool had gone up 2-1 in the second half, has been assisted by Jarrod Bowen and scored by Michail Antonio:
Happy birthday and farewell to David Moyes!
It’s West Ham manager David Moyes‘s 61st birthday today. In an article on the KUMB website Paul Walker writes that the foreseeable conclusion of the Scot’s tenure is “a sad and disrespectful end”.
With only four wins in 2024 and almost certainly losing out on qualifying for Europe it is almost inevitable that West Ham is looking for a fresh start and hence will not renew the manager‘s contract. But parting ways with the most successful Hammers manager since John Lyall, and that is David Moyes without any doubt, should be done in a respectful and dignified way.
Let’s hope the players will recover from the Europa League exit and from the 2-5 drubbing by Crystal Palace last weekend, which meant that West Ham have virtually gone out of Europe twice within the space of one week. I very much hope that the players who have been on an incredible and massive journey with their manager since the beginning of 2020, for four and a half years now, are up for the last games of the season and won’t let the season just peter out. The manager does deserve that!
I will bid my personal farewell to David Moyes by visiting the game against Chelsea away.
Matches left in the PL for West Ham: Liverpool (H), Chelsea (A), Luton (H), Manchester City (A).
Calls for end of Moyes‘s tenure…
… have become so numerous in comments of West Ham fans that it would be a greater miracle if David Moyes was still manager of the club by the end of the season than it was when the Scot succeeded in avoiding relegation twice in 2019/20 and 2017/18.
West Ham failed to produce a miraculous turnaround in the EL semifinal against Leverkusen, and lost twice in the PL, last weekend 2-5 at Glasner’s Crystal Palace, and it now seems almost certain the Hammers will find themselves outside the European places in the Premier League by the end of this campaign.
Hamburg Hammer writes on WHTID that for a manager taking such great pride in solid defensive football, Moyes has now been found out. And he adds: “I don’t see him coming up with a masterplan to turn things around again.”
WHTID columnist Kirk Blows therefore thinks that now is the perfect time to respectfully thank Moyes for his achievements over the past four years and move on.
He argues that the squad needs a huge overhaul – in fact a rebuild given the club has the second-oldest average starting XI in the top flight – and the team is crying out for fresh ideas and new impetus.
That’s perfectly right, and so is another writer for WHTID, Gary Hyams, who lists eight reasons why West Ham should part company with the Scot and concludes that “30 per cent possession is a mad way to play football. This is not the West Ham way.”
Rightly so. Moyes has won West Ham the first trophy in 43 years, but now it’s time to say “thanks, Mr. Moyes, for everything, it has been a massive delight to achieve three consecutive seasons in Europe and win silverware in Prague.” But given the circumstances it is time to move on.
Well, things have got so desperate lately that it could happen that on my next trip to London I will not want to watch West Ham…
In the meantime rumour has it that West Ham could be interested in appointing Ruben Amorim (Sporting Lissabon) as their new manager next season. The Portuguese had a meeting with West Ham chairman David Sullivan.
FA Cup Final ManC v ManU
Manchester United thought they were cruising to a repeat of last season’s final with neighbours Manchester City when they led Coventry City 3-0, but then United imploded and the Championship club took full advantage, and came back to 3-3, only to lose, due to VAR, in the penalty shootout.
Coventry City came back from 3-0 down, forced extra-time, had the better chances in extra-time and thought they’d won it through Victor Torp who seemed to have scored in the very last minute of extra time.
But for the narrowest of offsides, when Wright, who crossed the ball for Torp, was offside by about two cms, VAR disallowed the goal.
Manchester United would have been dumped out in spectacular fashion, but it wasn’t to be.
When Hojlund scored that final penalty for Manchester United, few, if any, United players really celebrated.
It’s not hard to see why. Coventry humiliated them from the 71st minute and should have won!
The second club in the final is Manchester City that won 1-0 v. Chelsea on Saturday courtesy to a late Bernardo Silva goal.
Semi finals 🏆
Die Anzahl der englischen Klubs in den Europacup-Bewerben ist drastisch gesunken, allein der aktuelle Vierte der Premier League, Aston Villa, Lieblingsklub meines Freundes Alfred und von Prinz William, steht im Semlfinale des erst vor wenigen Jahren neu geschaffenen dritten Bewerbs, der Conference League.
Immerhin könnten dort zwei Mal hintereinander unsere Lieblingsfarben „claret and blue“ den Pokal stemmen, falls die Villans nun Olympiakos und dann den Sieger aus der Paarung von Vorjahresfinalist AC Florenz und Brügge besiegen sollten.
Überraschend Deutschland und, wie im Vorjahr, Italien stellen drei Teilnehmer.
▶️ GER 3, ITA 3, FRA 2, ESP 1, GRE 1, BEL 1, ENG 1
Champions League: Bayern – Real Madrid; Dortmund – PSG
Europa League: Roma – Leverkusen; Marseille – Atalanta
Conference League: Aston Villa – Olympiacos; Fiorentina – Club Brügge
Da war‘s nur noch einer 🏴
Liverpool and West Ham both go out of Europa League, now Aston Villa only English club in European semifinals.
- FT: Atalanta 0-1 Liverpool (agg: 3-1) – Reds out after early Salah penalty had given them hope of comeback
- FT: West Ham 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen (agg: 1-3) – Hammers were very strong in first half, Antonio scored 1-0 in the 13th minute with a beautiful header (assist: Jarrod Bowen), West Ham really gave it their best shout and made their fans proud, but finally they were out when Frimpong’s late equaliser kept German side’s unbeaten run of (so far) 44 games this season going.
- Aston Villa beat Lille on penalties to reach Europa Conference League semi-finals and are the last English club left standing in Europe. World Cup winning keeper Martinez saved two penalties in shootout to clinch victory – match report here
EXTRA TIME 
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