David Moyes says he will not rush a decision over his future in the aftermath of West Ham’s defeat by Bayer Leverkusen, and has challenged his side to win all their remaining Premier League matches to secure another season in Europe.
The Hammers bowed out of the Europa League at the quarter-final stage following a 3-1 aggregate loss to the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions, though that scoreline does not tell the full story as Moyes’s side threatened a famous comeback for much of Thursday night’s second leg in London.
Their exit, however, means the Scot now has just five Premier League matches left before his contract expires at the end of the campaign, with no decision yet taken over whether he will sign a new deal.
The 60-year-old said at the start of this year that he would wait until the summer to asses the situation and while speculation over his future now looks set to dominate the run-in, he insists that plan has not changed.
“I have nothing to announce,” said Moyes, whose team travel to Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon. “I am happy. We are just getting on with the job.
“We are playing games, we have five left to play. We will get on with it. I said there was no real big rush to do anything and I still feel that way.”
Future uncertain: David Moyes is only contracted to West Ham until the end of the current season (Mike Egerton/PA Wire)
West Ham head into the weekend sitting eighth in the Premier League table, having missed the chance to climb to sixth when beaten 2-0 at home by Fulham last weekend.
While they remain firmly in contention for Europe, Moyes’s side are conceding at least one game in hand to all of their rivals and face a daunting run-in, with games against Manchester City, Liverpool and a resurgent Chelsea still to come among their five remaining fixtures.
“We need to win every game now,” the Scot said. “To give ourselves a chance of getting back into Europe, we need to.
“You can only win your next game so let’s see what happens. We will try and win our next game and see if we can hang in there.
“We had a pretty good start to the year. We have kept it going and we have probably been sixth, seventh, eighth. I am hoping we can keep ourselves in that position. We have been there most of the year.”
Despite that ambition, Moyes faces a major task to lift his squad ahead of Sunday’s trip to Selhurst Park, following their huge effort against Leverkusen.
All three of the German side’s goals across the course of the tie were scored by substitutes, in stark contrast to West Ham’s lack of depth, which has been shown up badly amid a spate of injuries and suspensions in recent weeks.
Said Benrahma, Thilo Kehrer and Pablo Fornals were all allowed to leave the club in January, but Kalvin Phillips was the only new arrival and the loanee has been among those sidelined for recent matches because of a hamstring injury. Moyes insists, however, that the lack of midseason transfer activity is not to blame for the Leverkusen defeat.
“We all know we would have liked to add if the right things were available,” he said. “ But I would hate to think [it] was a discussion because we didn’t have enough players.
“I don’t think we are a club that is going to carry loads and loads of really top players, so we can change one of our really good players for another at absolutely the same level.
“If I am being honest, if I had my way I would have smaller squads anyway. I would rather have a smaller squad. I always have done. You can get more problems with a bigger squad.
“Having a smaller squad isn’t bad but when you are playing, I think it will be 57 games this season, and maybe 60 last. We have had to take a big hit.
“This year alone, we have played maybe 12 more than the likes of Fulham or Wolves. It is nearly a quarter of the season in extra games.”
