David Moyes: New West Ham manager vows to give club ‘no choice’ than to extend his contract

Reappointed Hammers boss was in confident mood as he faced the media for the first time since returning to the London Stadium

Andy Sims
Monday 30 December 2019 10:24 EST
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David Moyes has promised to give West Ham United "no choice" but to extend his 18-month contract after returning for a second spell as manager.

Moyes was let go by co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan after the 2017-18 season despite leading the club to survival and a 13th-place finish.

Asked after returning to succeed Manuel Pellegrini if there were any hard feelings, Moyes said: "No, because things were done correctly - I wasn't taken on and I was told that.

"I was disappointed, I've said that, but I've got another chance to go again.

"I think it says a lot about the owners, they thought the job I did was good enough to give me another opportunity.

"This time I'm going to make it so there's no choice but to renew. There's a clause in there and I'm going to make it impossible to ignore that, that's my plan."

Moyes insisted the end to his previous spell at the club was barely discussed when he was approached to return.

"It was very simple when they called me," he said. "They asked me do I want to come back and I said 'I can't wait'.

"We didn't talk about the past, we were just talking about the team now, what we have to do and the position we're in."

Moyes revealed he is still "working on" assembling his backroom staff but he will be joined by Alan Irvine, his assistant in his previous spell at the club.

Responding to the section of fans who have questioned his re-appointment and style of play, Moyes defended his record.

"What anybody's getting is a very experienced Premier League manager, I think there's arguably only two or three more experienced around, and I win," he said.

"There's a lot of new modern things in football but recently I think you've seen signs of things going back a bit.

"We do want to keep possession but perhaps possession is not now seen, even maybe by yourselves (in the media), as the key to winning games.

"The fans want to see more attacking football, action and excitement. The biggest thing I want to see from my team is for the supporters to be excited - I would love that to be the case."

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