West Ham boss David Moyes believes that reaching the ECL final would be his biggest achievement as manager. On Thursday night in London, the first leg of the semi-final match between The Hammers and Dutch club AZ Alkmaar will be played. While Moyes has never accomplished that accomplishment as a manager, West Ham has gone 47 years without making its first European final.
“I believe it would. A final in Europe? It may be, huh,” West Ham boss David Moyes said about the ECL final. “I was lucky to get to the quarterfinals of the Champions League with Manchester United, but I lost to Everton on penalties in the quarterfinals of the Europa League. I played in a semi-final with West Ham the previous year. We’re once again in the semifinals this year. I thus wish to attempt to go a step farther.”
The importance of the Conference League, according to Moyes, was evident when an emotional Jose Mourinho shed tears of joy after winning the league with Roma one year ago. Moyes claims that West Ham would regard the game with the utmost seriousness.
“I’m referring to Jose Mourinho, who is perhaps a serial winner. It was incredibly special for him and his football team to win this title,” he added. “Jose would be the perfect example of how difficult it is if I ever needed one. There is no way we are treating it any less than he did as if it were so crucial.”
AZ’s team is the youngest in this Europa Conference League with an average age of 23.8 years, but Moyes says his team will have to put in “hard work” to win this match. Despite a poor campaign that has left the Hammers five points above the Premier League relegation zone, Moyes does think that his West Ham team is beginning to find its best form this season. Although the Scottish manager feels that some of his major acquisitions “have not worked as well” as he’d have hoped, he does think that his new players are beginning to gel.
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