Talking out throughout West Ham latest press conference, Hammers boss David Moyes stated:
"It is the start of a long journey to try and challenge the top teams and we are just beginning to make a little bit of an impact on that, but obviously we’ve got a long way to go.
I think we’re talking about ‘home’ more now when we play there and I think we’re more used to it. Maybe it’s taken a few years to settle in, as much as anything. Most people would say results are what matter and results have been much better at home and the stadium has been great. My understanding is we’ll probably have very close to 50,000 at the game on Thursday night, which is great. The supporters are turning up in their numbers and hopefully are enjoying the way the team has been playing.
I think we’re on the way [to earning respect for our growth over the past couple of years]. I don’t think we’re fully there yet and people are probably looking at how we do this season and seeing if we can back up what we did last year. People will be seeing if we can keep it going, but I think we have started this season better than we finished last year.
We’re trying to challenge the ‘Joneses’ at the top of the league and at the moment I think we’re doing okay but we’re mindful of stepping above our station too soon. I think we have a bit to do to before we prove to the people out there that we can be up there all the time.. We’re certainly competitive at the moment and if we can keep that going all season that ‘inconsistent’ title might go away a little bit.
What I will say is that I’ve had plenty of top agents putting their players to me and that tends to be a sign that people are beginning to think you’re attractive. I think West Ham is a huge club in London and I think if we can keep up this level we’ve got a great England international in our team, we’ve got really good Czech Republic players in the team and we’ve got more international players than we had before so I hope that we’re growing and improving.
Not quite two years ago when I came in the job was to get a team going in the right direction and see if we could start to build and grow. I think there are signs of those shoots going up and we need to keep it going. I do feel that I think we’re getting to the stage now where we don’t want any more COVID.
There have been too many deaths throughout the world. I think we need to try and make sure we try and eliminate is as best we can. If I was a football supporter I’d want to know the person sitting next to me is vaccinated and give me the best chance of not contracting the virus.
I’m a football supporter and I go to games and I want to keep going to games and I think the crowds are so important to football. I know people have a right to make their own choices and I respect that, but I actually think it’s something now we seriously have to consider because if I was a supporter, I’d really would want to go to a game and sit next to someone I know had been vaccinated.
All we do is attempt as best we possibly can. When we have the players in we can wear masks, wash our hands, keep distances between the group and we’re trying to do things correctly. Unfortunately it’s not just the football clubs where there’s COVID, there’s COVID worldwide wherever we go, but football clubs will always be looked at because everybody is so keep for us to keep football going and keep everybody entertained with football, so it’s really important we do as many of the right things that we can".
Source: transfermarketweb.com