Fiorentina vs. West Ham: David Moyes’s win a triumph for the good guys

I make no secret or apology about bias towards David Moyes. I’ve followed his career, been there in the manager’s office at Everton when the sun shone on his early career, been there in the manager’s office at Manchester United when there were clouds, been in San Sebastian when he went on adventures with Real Sociedad. Been at Rush Green, the training base of West Ham United, to see him enjoying himself as much – if not more – than at any time in 25 years as a football manager.

Prague, as he said, is the best moment of his career. His career, he said, so far. He believes there is much more to come and, at 60, his appetite and management skills may burn more hotly than ever. Will it be with West Ham? It’s up to them, but David Sullivan and the rest of the ownership have backed him through times of speculation and criticism and it would be extraordinary if they came to any other conclusion than this: here is the manager to take them on another tilt at silverware in next season’s Europa League.

Whatever the external noise has been, across 209 games, spanning two stints, the buy-in between Moyes and West Ham’s players has been unbreakable since he arrived in November 2017 with the team facing relegation, pasted their (then) pathetic running numbers on the wall and told them things were going to change and “if you don’t want to be part of it you can all go”.

Breaking off from all manner of goofy celebrations with the trophy on Wednesday night, Declan Rice, the captain, said: “I want to say a big mention to the manager; there’s been times this year when he’s been tested. There was a period when a lot of the fanbase wanted him out because the results weren’t going well.”

A reason why Moyes’s triumph will go down so well inside football in general and the managerial fraternity in particular is his “stickability”. His 1,098 games across 25 years is a long time to wait for a trophy and it has been a career in which no job has come his way easily. Every mandate for carrying on another season has been fought for and in almost no transfer window has he benefited from an owner’s largesse. Last summer was an exception, with West Ham spending pounds 160 million – which in itself created pressure when the season started badly. And so there was a symmetry about West Ham’s winning goal – created by the most expensive player Moyes has ever bought, a Brazil thoroughbred, but finished by a classic Moyes bargain capture, a player signed from Hull City who played in non-League and used to go sprint training in his uncle’s potato field.

Rice said: “I think [Moyes] is there as West Ham’s best-ever manager now, it has to be said.” Moyes himself won’t be embracing that. At the pre-match press conference he vocalised something fundamental about his outlook on life. When asked about becoming a “West Ham legend”, he said: “I don’t think of myself as any different to anyone else in this room. I’m really fortunate and privileged and thankful to be given an opportunity to be a football manager.”

That conscious, matter-of-fact ordinariness is perhaps one reason why there seems to be a section of supporters who just won’t take to him. In the era of the “sexy” celebrity manager and coaches with cults around them, some people just don’t want ordinary. They don’t want it to be about hard work and sensible principles when it could be about philosophies and “the brand”.

But Moyes, as he has observed himself, is doing something right because just surviving in the dugout in these fickle times is a triumph, let alone racking up 659 games and 11 top-eight finishes in the Premier League. Wednesday’s triumph seemed all the sweeter because of all the “nearly” in Moyes’s career. He’s had so many games against big clubs when the result was snatched away in the closing stages – there was an FA Cup final loss to Chelsea (with Everton) and first division playoff final defeat to Sam Allardyce (when Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers beat his Preston North End side).

When Said Benrahma put West Ham ahead from the spot and Moyes ran to the edge of his technical area, giving it double fist pumps, the mind went back to Munich, nine years ago, when Patrice Evra put Moyes’s Manchester United ahead in the Champions League quarter-final tie with 33 minutes remaining. Moyes had charged down the touchline celebrating then, only to soon be broken by a Bayern comeback. When Fiorentina equalised so quickly you wondered if history was repeating itself. But, no, things went the other way with Bowen’s winner and there, by the side of the pitch, about half an hour after the presentations, Moyes was able to enjoy a special moment with his father, David Sr, 87, who himself was once a football coach. He gave his dad his medal to put on. “I thought he should get it round his neck. He’s probably watched a lot of things over the years and not had that moment,” Moyes said.

Speaking of dads, there it was – the dad dancing Moyes had promised in the event of victory. There was a funny little jig to Sweet Caroline and a sterling bit of bouncing while punching the air with one fist to Freed from Desire. One thing about Moyes is he keeps his promises. If he says he’ll phone back, he will; if he has arranged to meet, he’ll be there and on time – no matter what other tasks and pressures crop up over the course of his busy managerial day.

Those might sound like small things but in football, behaviour like that is rarer than it should be. Good guys do sometimes win. There are only three other British managers still alive to have won European trophies: Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham and Keith Burkinshaw. How does it feel to at last have a major winners’ medal? “F***ing brilliant,” Moyes said, typically straightforwardly.

-The Times

Originally published as Fiorentina vs. West Ham: David Moyes’s win a triumph for the good guys