Moyes says West Ham's midfield 'could be better than last season'

David Moyes says West Ham’s midfield ‘could be better than last season’ despite losing Declan Rice and says new managers can find squad change ‘easier’ ahead of Chelsea clash

• David Moyes thinks West Ham’s midfield may have improved on last season’s
• They have added James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez after losing Declan Rice
• He also said that new managers may find it ‘easier’ to weather big squad change

West Ham boss David Moyes thinks West Ham’s midfield could be in a better shape than it was last season despite losing Declan Rice and enduring recruitment struggles.

The Hammers have added James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez for a combined £65.4million, allaying some fears that he might even be sacked after disagreements in the transfer department. 

Tensions had been rising throughout the summer amid a difference in opinion on transfer targets between Moyes, new technical director Tim Steidten and co-owner David Sullivan. Their inability to land targets even saw Domino’s Pizza mock them. 

Now, however, Moyes believes his midfield could be better than it was when they lifted the Europa Conference League in June. 

‘Could be, I do think that,’ he said.

David Moyes says he thinks West Ham’s midfield ‘could be better than last season’ 

The Hammers have had a tricky summer after losing Declan Rice but have now signed Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse

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‘We’ve tried to get players in who could do certain jobs for us and do well.

‘Dec was a super player, and if we can get anywhere close to being that level with Declan then we’ll have done a good job in that recruitment department.

‘I’m sure you know we had a final on June 7, and then we went to Australia as well. Our time was quite short, so that’s the reason for a lot of the business being done a bit later.

‘And we sold a player [Rice] probably only a month into the transfer window so there’s lots of reasons when you look at maybe why we didn’t get things done as quick as we’d have liked.’

He also said that it can be easier to be a new manager when there is lots of change going on at a club, nodding towards his clash with new Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino later today at the London Stadium. 

The Blues have embarked on another transfer window of huge spending and enormous turnover of players having also seen the likes of Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and N’Golo Kante all depart.

They have splashed out more than £300m on players this summer, taking the total spend under their new owners to almost £1billion, and last week completed the £115m signing of Moises Caicedo and £58m addition of Romeo Lavia.

James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez have joined West Ham to add quality to the midfield

Moyes said it can be easier for new managers to cope with large-scale squad change. He faces new Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino later today

Moyes also oversaw plenty of change at West Ham last season, having spent almost £200m on new players including midfielder Lucas Paqueta and defender Nayef Aguerd.

But the Hammers boss says the difficult seasons both clubs experienced, with West Ham finishing 14th and Chelsea falling to a 12th place Premier League finish, shows significant investment does not always guarantee success, but believes Pochettino may have an advantage by being new to the club.

‘Strangely enough when you’re a new manager, it’s actually a bit easier because players come and go,’ said Moyes. ‘When you’ve been at a club for a while and there’s been lots of changes [it’s more difficult], which I felt we had last year, and we’ll probably still end up with quite a few changes this year when it comes to the end of the window.

‘I have to say, I think Chelsea have brought in a number of really talented players. I watched them play last Sunday and I thought they played really well so they’ve bedded in quite quickly.

‘Not all players bed in right way so it will be interesting to see what happens.’

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