West Ham are not planning to initiate contract extension talks with David Moyes any time soon despite it potentially becoming a “distraction” during the season, according to Kieran Gill.
The Daily Mail journalist said in a Q&A on paper’s website on 4 October that the club prefer to review contracts in the summer for their players and plan to do the same with the manager by waiting until the end of the campaign, despite his deal expiring in the summer.
The Scot managing to qualify the Hammers for European football again is expected to be “crucial to Moyes’ chances of an extension”, but the club may review the situation before that point “later in the season’.
The Hammers boss, 60, was at risk of being sacked for much of the previous campaign amid the threat of Premier League relegation before he “earned the right to decide his own fate” after winning the Europa Conference League.
Unconvinced
This seems a needlessly risky plan since the authority of a manager is necessarily weakened when they could be gone within a matter of months or weeks, so if form is faltering later in the year it could be a problem.
It also suggests that he bought himself some breathing space with the European trophy win but not necessarily the actual backing of the board.
If West Ham narrowly miss out on Europe this year and Moyes is let go then it would suggest the hierarchy was ready to get rid of him this summer but just felt it would look bad after a trophy win.
So far the board have been rewarded for their patience, or luck, in not making the decision to change during last season’s struggles.
The triumph over Fiorentina in May and a strong start to this term has suggested that Moyes has got a bad season out of his system, and after some initial problems it would appear that he and technical director Tim Steidten found a way to work together on transfers to good effect.
But players, coaches, managers, and fans alike prefer to have certainty so if the season is hanging in the balance heading into the final months of his deal then it could have an unwanted negative influence.
In other West Ham news, the club are set to have a “fight” on their hands to keep hold of a popular player with “bigger” clubs expected to come calling.
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