Get the handbrake off Jose

Well that was quite a weekend - arguably the best that we’ve had so far this season.

Oh, a quick word about my absence. I’ve had another heavyweight writing project on my plate these past few weeks, which is why I’ve been so quiet.

So where do we start? I know, just as the weekend did. What a fantastic result for David Moyes and the Hammers eh? They were terrific  against Chelsea. What a triumph for British coaching and organisation! It’s actually a result that I think was born at Manchester City the weekend before. West Ham were good there as well but got nothing for their hard work. I thought the outcome was rough on them - and City actually got out of jail - again. I’ll come back to that.

There was a piece in The Times today  headlined ‘How David Moyes saved West Ham’. That’s premature. He hasn’t done anything of the sort just yet, but as you know I’ve always believed he would. Moyes is a good man - also a good football man - and yes, there is a difference.

Moyes got unlucky trying to pick up the pieces of a failing empire from Fergie, but who wouldn’t have taken the job? And don’t tell me he destroyed the Champions - just look at what United have spent since. Fergie got out with impeccable timing - as I’ve always said.

Moyes should never have gone to Spain and the decision to take Sunderland was baffling. He was warned about what he was getting into by the guy leaving the job!

Anyway, relax you Hammers. You’ll be fine now - but there’s plenty of hard work to come. Just remember this - you’re all in it together. Give Moyes your total backing.

Another British coach is making quite an impact at Everton eh? I’ll bet Big Sam loved every second of Jurgen Klopp’s embarrassing post match tantrum. Klopp blamed everybody but himself for Liverpool’s implosion. What about his team selection? It was outrageous. What on earth possessed him to leave Countinho and Firmino out? What arrogance. ‘They were tired’ he argued. Tired? 16 games into a domestic season and 6 CL games and neither has played in them all. No, Klopp massively under-estimated Everton, their organisation and Sam. And it was a pen!

What Sam proved again is that there are two sides to the game. Yes, if you’ve got the tools and you can sweep people aside following a £500m spend, great. We all applaud that.  But if you’ve got a team that less than a month ago were in the bottom three and on their backsides you can’t do that. You do what Sam did. So why didn’t Klopp realise that? And then to compound the mistakes in your starting line-up you take your best player off when the game isn’t won? No wonder Klopp was annoyed, but it should’ve been with himself. There wasn’t much between the two clubs on the day was there? The second half of the season could be really interesting on Merseyside.

And what of Jose? Come on man - take the handbrake off. For goodness sake, why are you so scared? You’ve spent a fortune. You’re at home. You need to win. You’ve got players who CAN take a game to the very best - do it man. Do it.