Peter AndersonWest Ham's 3-2 win over Leicester has set up an interesting end of season fight for the Champions League spots. 

With 7 games remaining only 4 points separate third and sixth. City and United look nailed on for first and second, while Spurs and Everton in 7th and 8th look out of the race due to inconsistency. That leaves Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea and Liverpool to contest the final 2 CL places.

There's no doubting that Chelsea and Liverpool need it more. Failure to finish in the top 4 for these clubs will be seen as a complete failure of a season but I expect Tuchel and Klopp to be still managing their clubs next season. Leicester, like last season, seem to be fading just as the finishing line comes into sight. Let's hope our Brendan can steady the ship. The team looking most likely to secure a place are this season's surprise packet, West Ham. Their signing of Jesse Lingard from Man U has proved to be the signing of the window if not the season. No longer are West Ham over reliant on their excellent but injury prone striker, Antonio. Now with Lingard's 8 goals and 3 assists since January they also have Soucek, Bowen and Fornals regularly chipping in too.

What a turnaround for the club. Not so long ago the fans were in open revolt against the board. Moving to the Olympic stadium from their sacred Upton Park home was a deeply unpopular move. The board pointed to a brighter future in a bigger ground, and to show they meant business splashed out to get Pellegrini in as manager and £80 million on Felipe Anderson and Sebastian Haller. But it all went wrong in super quick time, the manager was sacked with the club in 17th place and the 2 star signings quietly shown the door. To compound the failure in the eyes of the faithful they appointed Moyes as manager. The fans were not happy, Moyes was yesterday's man, but slowly and surely he has got them playing some great footy.

I have to admit that I agreed with the Hammer's fans. I think Moyes was over-rated for what he did at Everton. During his 8 years in charge he only got them into the Champions League once only to be knocked out in the qualifier by Pellegrini's Villarreal. And not once in those 8 years did he get Everton to a League or FA cup final. While his tenures at Man U, Sunderland and Real Sociedad were all failures. But what do I know? Now he looks odds on to get West Ham into the CL and a third place means no qualifying round. Their next two games are away to Newcastle and then home to Chelsea in what will undoubtedly be a tasty wee game, given the deep hatred between the two clubs' fans. 6 points from those two games and the job will be almost done with an 'easy' run in on paper to follow.

Champions League for West Ham will mean breathing space for the board, a chance to recoup some of the £200 million that they have spent/wasted in the last few years and vindication of their policy to get the Hammers into the European big time. But for the long-suffering fans it will mean seeing their team against Europe's elite. I really hope they do it, but whatever happens this season's run in suddenly looks interesting.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

Hammers

Peter AndersonWest Ham's 3-2 win over Leicester has set up an interesting end of season fight for the Champions League spots. 

With 7 games remaining only 4 points separate third and sixth. City and United look nailed on for first and second, while Spurs and Everton in 7th and 8th look out of the race due to inconsistency. That leaves Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea and Liverpool to contest the final 2 CL places.

There's no doubting that Chelsea and Liverpool need it more. Failure to finish in the top 4 for these clubs will be seen as a complete failure of a season but I expect Tuchel and Klopp to be still managing their clubs next season. Leicester, like last season, seem to be fading just as the finishing line comes into sight. Let's hope our Brendan can steady the ship. The team looking most likely to secure a place are this season's surprise packet, West Ham. Their signing of Jesse Lingard from Man U has proved to be the signing of the window if not the season. No longer are West Ham over reliant on their excellent but injury prone striker, Antonio. Now with Lingard's 8 goals and 3 assists since January they also have Soucek, Bowen and Fornals regularly chipping in too.

What a turnaround for the club. Not so long ago the fans were in open revolt against the board. Moving to the Olympic stadium from their sacred Upton Park home was a deeply unpopular move. The board pointed to a brighter future in a bigger ground, and to show they meant business splashed out to get Pellegrini in as manager and £80 million on Felipe Anderson and Sebastian Haller. But it all went wrong in super quick time, the manager was sacked with the club in 17th place and the 2 star signings quietly shown the door. To compound the failure in the eyes of the faithful they appointed Moyes as manager. The fans were not happy, Moyes was yesterday's man, but slowly and surely he has got them playing some great footy.

I have to admit that I agreed with the Hammer's fans. I think Moyes was over-rated for what he did at Everton. During his 8 years in charge he only got them into the Champions League once only to be knocked out in the qualifier by Pellegrini's Villarreal. And not once in those 8 years did he get Everton to a League or FA cup final. While his tenures at Man U, Sunderland and Real Sociedad were all failures. But what do I know? Now he looks odds on to get West Ham into the CL and a third place means no qualifying round. Their next two games are away to Newcastle and then home to Chelsea in what will undoubtedly be a tasty wee game, given the deep hatred between the two clubs' fans. 6 points from those two games and the job will be almost done with an 'easy' run in on paper to follow.

Champions League for West Ham will mean breathing space for the board, a chance to recoup some of the £200 million that they have spent/wasted in the last few years and vindication of their policy to get the Hammers into the European big time. But for the long-suffering fans it will mean seeing their team against Europe's elite. I really hope they do it, but whatever happens this season's run in suddenly looks interesting.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

6 comments:

  1. I think the biggest surprise here is that Moyes was the coach to haul the Hammers up. I thought he was found out at Man Utd and that he would finish his days at Cliftonville or Bangor. But he has made a good side of them. Getting Jesse was a game changer for them.

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  2. I don't know so much, I always thought he was a decent coach. It was an ill fitting appointment at United. Swashbuckling Fergie to a defensive coach he was always going to pale there.

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  3. I thought the same, Coleraine or Derry because his wife is from Portrush. He certainly surprised many this season.

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  4. The points gap between M U and Pool is as wide as during the Fergie era. Has a Champs lge winning team ever fallen so far so fast ? Europa lge beckons.
    Hammers or Foxes to get fourth.

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  5. Well done to Northern Ireland women who tonight qualified for Euros 22 with 2-0 win (4-1 on aggregate) over Ukraine.

    Come on GAWA women!

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  6. Lingard has been immense of late.

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