David Moyes is targeting a successful end to 2022 when West Ham United host Brentford in the Premier League on Friday evening.
The Hammers reach the climax of a memorable calendar year in which the team qualified for European football through their league position for the second consecutive season and reach the UEFA Europa League semi-finals seeking to rediscover that level of form and consistency.
Moyes, who was appointed as West Ham manager for a second time exactly three years ago and has since overseen back-to-back top-seven finishes and a 45.5% win ratio in his 166 matches in charge, knows performance levels and results must improve.
I think the idea when we came in was to try and build the Club up again, and then get us back in a good position.
We certainly did that very quickly, maybe quicker than then we all expected. But once you get there, then you want to hang on to it as long as you can.
So, we took over in not a particular good position when we came into the job, but I've got to say that the last two or three years, it's been very good.
Actually, it's not easy to be in a job for three years in the Premier League as it doesn't sometimes give you that chance, so I'm really pleased I've had time to work with the players and I think we've shown what we can do.
I think that we've introduced quite a few new players and we've tried to bed them in from a team which was relatively steady over a few years, so I still see that has been probably the major thing.
And also, you can't keep the same team all the time that long. You have to look to move on and we attempted to do that in the summer as well, so we are giving those players a chance to show exactly what they can do.
It doesn't matter who you've got because they’re all crucial, as every game in the Premier League really matters because most people are either fighting for Europe, fighting at the bottom of the league, or fighting to try and get higher up in the league position.
So, I think all the games are really important, whether you're playing teams who are not quite as high up in the league or whether you're playing against the top teams.
I think the competitive nature of the Premier League means that there are no easy games so from that point of view, every game you get in the Premier League is really tough.
We've recently been much more used to being at the top half of the league, so we don't enjoy the position we're in and we recognise that we have to win a few games and get out of it.
I've got great support from David Sullivan so, at the moment, I'd say your sources [who claim I am close to departing] are not correct.
But I'm not daft. I know you’re always under pressure as a football manager. There may be one or two [for whom that is not the case], but most of the managers in some way, if you lose a few games, then you're always going to be under a bit of pressure.
You can say that [I deserve time to improve things], but I wouldn't. It's not for me to say that. I think it's for other people to say that, if that's the case.
You’ve got to come in and try and raise expectations wherever you go. I think we've done that. We've had some really, really good, good seasons in the last two years, and probably done a lot better so we're just disappointed we've not done as well at the moment. But we plan to do a lot better and we're working towards that.
We'll go about the game [against Brentford] in the way we have done for a long period.
We'll do everything we can to when, we'll try and attack them the best we can, we'll try and defend well when we're put under pressure, so we'll try and do all the things which are required to get a result.
I think Thomas Frank has done a really good job and I think Brentford, have done a really good job because I think they knocked in the door for about three years in a row in the Play-Offs but didn't quite make it.
They've got themselves in the Premier League and they're doing a really good job with the development. The model they've got is different from many clubs, but it's a good one.
I think they're doing an awful lot of good things at Brentford, so they need a lot of credit for that.
We've said recently that we probably don't think we'll be doing an awful lot of business in January, but that could change.
But, at the moment, I don't see us doing an awful lot of business.
I think if players left, we’d look to replace them if that was the case, but at the minute I’ve not got any indication of that, so we’ll see how it goes.
There will be no chance Declan Rice leaves in this window.
I've certainly not set a New Year's resolution yet, but I think there was a lot of 2022 that was really good for us.
We've probably not started the start of this 2022/23 season in the form as good as we’ve have liked, but generally 2022 was very good for us.
And you know, we were competing in and we were in big competitions right up until the latter stages so, from that point of view, we'd have to be pleased with it.
