During David Moyes’ second stint as West Ham boss, the Scot delivered the most successful period in the club’s modern-day history.
That culminated in the Hammers winning the Europa Conference League in 2023, during a run of three consecutive European campaigns.
But despite delivering silverware and memories that the club’s fans will cherish forever, he would be gone at the end of the following season, as the noise around his pragmatic style of play became too loud to overcome.
Michail Antonio on David Moyes at West Ham
Former West Ham striker Michail Antonio played some of his best football under Moyes, scoring 55 goals in 182 appearances under the former Manchester United boss, believing that the Scot quickly understood the soul of the club.
“He just knew the culture of the club and how to get the boys going,” Antonio tells FourFourTwo. “We didn’t play the best football, but we got results.”
Antonio does, however, acknowledge that this approach would sometimes come at the expense of winning over the fans.
“Obviously the fans were frustrated by the style of play,” he admits. “But we were winning and managed to achieve things with it.”
Moyes’ first spell saw him parachuted in to beat the drop in November 2017, but he would not be handed a permanent deal at the end of that season, despite meeting this objective.
“That’s why I was surprised he didn’t get the job permanently after his first spell, because he kept us up. Then the second time, the fans did get annoyed with the style of play and wanted us to play better.”
Moyes’ second stint saw him arrive in December 2019, with the club in 17th place and it would last for five years before the club looked to change direction.
While many pundits questioned the move, Antonio admits that the Hammers’ dressing room also believed letting Moyes go was a risk
“Yeah, because of what he was achieving,” the Jamaica international adds. “We kept getting into Europe and doing well.
“But in the last year, we were getting close to relegation, so you thought, ‘Even though we’re doing well in Europe, we might need to find a new philosophy.’”
Michail Antonio’s autobiography ‘Humans Not Robots’, published by HarperCollins, is available now