2025/26 David Moyes

[Charles Hawtrey]

Perhaps he has put himself in a position around Euro-qualification that wil, and should, garner him an extension to his contract. Next year the expectation will be to finish in the same sort of place in the league and be competitive in the European games. That is a much bigger ask and he may fail to step up to that level. Then, that would seal his fate.

 

[msb]

All a bit odd.

A year ago we were fighting to escape relegation, this year we are fighting to qualify for Europe.

What part of that is incomprehensible to posters?

If we fail, it is still that we had a chance of Europe and significantly no chance of relegation.

Can we do better, probably! However, this does not mean that Moyes should not get enormous credit for progress. The whole mentality of the team and supporter’s expectations have changed in a ridiculously short time frame, in no way should this be attributed to Moyes - come on, be sensible.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

I just think it is important we maintain our league form during the season we are Europe, that is how we become mainstays there. I actually understand some of the shouts for conference league, but I think champions league is a better destination for Moyes. He can play the same team Wednesday and Sunday. But not so much on a Thursday and Sunday. Being "Half Full" of it...

At West Ham he tended to play second string sides when possible during early stage matches. He was very good at rotating with quite a small squad.

I think pretty much much any competition is good. Conference is a winnable tournament while Champions League or Europa should also make us a bigger draw for players.

 

[siddharth]

At West Ham he tended to play second string sides when possible during early stage matches. He was very good at rotating with quite a small squad.

I think pretty much much any competition is good. Conference is a winnable tournament while Champions League or Europa should also make us a bigger draw for players.

Terrible start and a terrible closer... Not worth the hassle. Think we should enjoy the current season to the fullest and see where we land in the summer, ambition-wise. It is also a big ask of TFG to bolster the squad. If Moyes is given the task of only looking at the club operations and has a coach working for him managing the team. The Brighton model, we are still ok to go.

 

[DualityNSNO]

What will be, will be.

I ask, yeah we are close to Europe (one point is it, maybe even in a European place now, so a bit more than somewhat). but what exactly happens if we finish 5th and we have a great finishing run? It was all down to the players, Moyes is still crap?

At the end of the day, bottom half would be correctly seen as a failure. I think if that scenario plays out, I would personally still stay positive. But that is because I hold the cliched view of emotion in football. Never too high, never too low. I believe there have been enough positives so far to still have a positive outlook, regardless of what happens in these last 6 games.

If we do get 5th it'd be down to Moyes and the players, I'd say even more so on Moyes for squeezing out that bit more that was needed in some cases - I've never not credited that when it happens with him.

I'd say overall it was a positive season and a sacking is unwarranted (related to below post too just leaving it here), as it is progress overall - more wins, etc., players in the national team(s), some good moments, but it'd be a certain sacking if we hobble out again in the same way next year as improvement will be even more sought after then.

If he finishes 12th or 14th I wouldn't be upset or surprised were they to sack him.

Agree with you that if we make Europe the bar gets raised to that level.

This new concept that we can't celebrate a league position until the season is over is frankly ridiculous and they won't apply it to themselves if we hit poor form and the opportunity presents itself for the Anti Moyes doomers to tell us how the sky is falling.

I

I think we can celebrate the potential/progress/whathaveyou for it, but to go "wahey but Europe lads eh????" when there's still a substantial amount of games to play will be to the detriment of both doomer and happy points and it will lead to an all out war on here Caution should prevail (among fans), we should know better than anyone like - I'm okay for the players/manager to talk themselves up using it, it is warranted in this case, and we should celebrate the optimism, but "almost Europe" doesn't really sit super right to celebrate, if that makes sense; scent of "7th place DVD".

Remember with Carlo when we were celebrating being top 4 for half a year and how that ended? We should be looking forward to more wins obviously but we should also demand it be sustainable, not in runs of a month on/off (though for Moyes currently it's more 'streaky form at times', rather than 'prolonged month+ bad form followed by 3 good games' as it was under previous incumbents).


The doom brigade will be out anyway though, not even sure Moyes will change that - it'll always be DOOM O'CLOCK somewhere*, I guess.

* in davek's head.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

Terrible start and a terrible closer... Not worth the hassle.

i don’t understand what this means.

 

[DualityNSNO]

At West Ham he tended to play second string sides when possible during early stage matches. He was very good at rotating with quite a small squad.

That is very much not true by the way.

 

[siddharth]

i don’t understand what this means.

Sorry, I meant that the times you mention, West ham had a terrible league record both at the start and near the final. The carried absolutely no momentum from the league.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

Sorry, I meant that the times you mention, West ham had a terrible league record both at the start and near the final. The carried absolutely no momentum from the league.

They had a lot going on. They signed lots of players and it destabilized the group. In fact, it’s a good example of what can happen when you bring too many players in at once and try to change the style of a team.

But they did improve massively in the second half of that season and won a cup, so it was surely their best season since the early 1980s?

I think we would take that as even if you have a mediocre league season you would still get Europa and a trophy from the Conference.

 

[DualityNSNO]

They had a lot going on. They signed lots of players and it destabilized the group. In fact, it’s a good example of what can happen when you bring too many players in at once and try to change the style of a team.

But they did improve massively in the second half of that season and won a cup, so it was surely their best season since the early 1980s?

I think we would take that as even if you have a mediocre league season you would still get Europa and a trophy from the Conference.

They didn't improve in the league, their form was terrible, there were genuinely worse teams around them that helped.

All of the things you say as facts are very easy to check if you really want to by the way.

 

[Gilbert..]

I think 8th after only scoring 39 goals more reflects the way we are set up with a focus on defence v chance creation. Gets the points but not as entertaining as it could be but you know what you sign up to with Moyes.

Newcastle have scored more than Aston Villa this season. Newcastle are 14th. Villa are comfortably sitting in the Champions league for next season.
I dont think Villa fans give a sh!t the team in 14th have scored more.

 

[siddharth]

They had a lot going on. They signed lots of players and it destabilized the group. In fact, it’s a good example of what can happen when you bring too many players in at once and try to change the style of a team.

But they did improve massively in the second half of that season and won a cup, so it was surely their best season since the early 1980s?

I think we would take that as even if you have a mediocre league season you would still get Europa and a trophy from the Conference.

Still think we need to have a decent League Position that season. Anyway, my point is that apples and oranges. We need our program to be solid, we are our model club. we are everton. I would love for Moyes to absolutely show us the ropes and make us a solid side that challenges for Europe year in year out. But I don't know if he is gonna be the one that has to do the grunt work. I want the highest place possible this season, then a wonderful European campaign to make it memorable. Moyes can do that from above guiding the club's ethos while someone else does the football coaching.

 

[Furey1878]

So again I ask, yeah we are somewhat close to Europe, but what exactly happens if we end up at 13-14th and we have a dreadful finishing run? "It was expected"? "Best we can do with these players"?

Well this is it. Realistically, I can't see us finishing below 10th, though it is possible for us to finish as low as you're saying.

I think top half has to be seen as positive from where we've been. Even with the investment we've had in the squad this year, we still don't really have a right side, a left back who can get forward and our best centre half has been missing for 2/3s of the season.

8th should be enough for Conference League this year, any European qualification is a great return, and finishing any higher than 7th imo is outstanding, even with the relative underperformance of Chelsea and Liverpool.

But yeah to your actual question. If it's we just lose the majority of the last few games with absolutely no mitigation like Pickford, Ndiaye and Branthwaite all getting injured or something, then I think you need to make a call on the manager in the summer.

 

[Furey1878]

Newcastle have scored more than Aston Villa this season. Newcastle are 14th. Villa are comfortably sitting in the Champions league for next season.
I dont think Villa fans give a sh!t the team in 14th have scored more.

He's just identifying that scoring is clearly been a weakness of ours mate, if we improve on that next season whilst keeping at least as decent defensively as we've been, then we're in very good stead.

That said, I think Pickford often makes our defensive numbers look better. But also, this defense has also been missing Branthwaite for a long time and is still missing an actual right back.

 

[Furey1878]

Perhaps he has put himself in a position around Euro-qualification that wil, and should, garner him an extension to his contract. Next year the expectation will be to finish in the same sort of place in the league and be competitive in the European games. That is a much bigger ask and he may fail to step up to that level. Then, that would seal his fate.

Expectation will be higher next year, regardless. The baseline will be qualifying for Europe.

That said, I'm sure there would be reasonable mitigation from the fans. If we finished more midtable, but with good cup runs and/or a european run, or actually win something... then I don't think anyone would be too fussed with finishing 12th.