Paul Merson: West Ham Should Be Careful What They Wish for with David Moyes Set to Leave Soon

In his latest column, Paul Merson warns West Ham to be careful what they wish for as Europa Conference League winner David Moyes stands to lose his job.

The Magic Man says he would have kept Moyes in the role for another year, is worried that Tottenham have no plan B under Ange Postecoglou and sympathizes with Arsenal, who he believes will lose out in the title race, though he “did nothing wrong.”

I would have kept Moyes – we’ve seen that before

West Ham must be careful what they wish for. Moyes felled trees there and won a European trophy. Solid seventh, eighth, ninth and back in the top half of the table.

I’m not saying what happened to Charlton will happen overnight, but I remember many years ago when I was playing, their fans were asking to get rid of Alan Curbishley, saying it was boring in the middle of the They wanted to kick at the table.

They have never been seen since. This manager is top notch. You’ve won a European trophy! It’s just crazy.

I wouldn’t have been able to get rid of him in a month full of Sundays. West Ham fans will come back saying this and that and overturning all the statistics in the world. But I’ll just give you the biggest statistic of all. He. Won. You. A. Trophy.

I don’t care about this entertaining football, we don’t play that well, we should do better with these players. You won a trophy! Look at Arsenal, they are incredible and could end up with nothing.

Arsenal have done nothing wrong – and they still won’t win the league

I’ve already said that Fulham was the only game that could cause problems for Man City. If you look at it at the moment, what chances do Tottenham have? What chance does West Ham have? This is the only game.

Fulham were at Brentford last week and drew 0-0. But the moment Man City scores a goal, you can’t imagine Fulham scoring two or three goals. Hopefully they make it difficult, but I told them a while ago when Arsenal lost to Aston Villa that I didn’t give them a chance.

If I’m honest they did a great job staying there. They didn’t do anything wrong, apart from a game against a team that has a good team – but now can’t win a game! That’s why people continue to play for big clubs – that’s the difference, everyone wants to beat you.

Since then, Villa have held on against Chelsea, been knocked over by Olympiakos and then beaten by Brighton.

Fulham is the saloon of last chance. If they win the game, it’s over.

The Champions League must be Chelsea’s goal next season

Chelsea weren’t consistent enough. They were good in the cups – that happens sometimes when you’re a young team.

They’re doing well at the moment, fair play, and they’re in the middle of the race for Europe. In my opinion they have to do it – they’ve reached a final and a semi-final, they were completely unlucky in both and it still couldn’t be a bad season.

But they have to go out and buy players and not sit around and think they did everything right from the start. No, they didn’t. They are miles away from Man City and Arsenal. You have to look at the bigger picture.

You need to bring in some experience over the summer. It looks like Thiago Silva is leaving, he is their most experienced player.

So they have to add something else, that’s what you need if you want consistency when things aren’t going well, and they can just calm it down a little bit. They probably need an experienced centre-back to take Silva’s place and they could also use another centre-forward.

They certainly want to get into the Champions League next year. So they need to start closing the gap on Arsenal and Man City.

This is Chelsea, not an ordinary team. Chelsea are used to winning things, they want to win things – not finish fourth in the league like Tottenham wanted and celebrate about it.

I can’t imagine Poch not being in charge next season, even if nothing surprises you. I didn’t think they should ever get rid of him, he’s a good manager. Individuals don’t win anything, and as long as they continue to get this under control and continue playing as a team now, they’ll be fine.

Ange cannot afford a repeat of the season next year

I’ve already said that it won’t be the same for Tottenham next year. It’s one of those situations where you look at the whole thing and think: yes, free kick, free kick, it’s much better than last year.

But there’s no way they’ll be able to do that next year, they’ll be beaten by four and five and have no plan B. But that’s what happened.

Everyone jumped at the standard situations. He’ll work on it – the man is a good coach. But every time they concede a goal now, they are in trouble.

Everyone loved him, the press loved him, everyone loved him unless you were an Arsenal fan. Now everyone is jumping at him.

I like Ange, don’t get me wrong. For a neutral he’s brilliant. If you’re a fan, I’m not so sure. As Celtic’s manager it’s easy to live with that philosophy. “We will go out and play frontline football.”

You can’t do that at Tottenham. No disrespect, but it’s possible at Celtic. If you open the game up there, you have a chance, we have a chance, you win the game. That’s not the case with Spurs.

You have to be sweet, that’s why people like Mourinho and Conte went in and played the way they played. They could have gone on and weighed things up and said they would win a lot of games – but in the big games you would have freaked out.

He has to change next season. Tottenham fans are already getting restless; Their season is about stopping Arsenal from winning the league now. You can’t keep living like this and the players have to get up too.

Maddison has come back from his injury, he hasn’t touched the ball. It’s not just the manager, he’s had injuries but you can’t just keep doing what you’re doing. I like him, I like the way they play, but it’s no use being a fan.