As West Ham United continue their preparation for next Wednesday's UEFA Europa Conference League final in Prague, David Moyes spoke to the press during the club's media open day.
The upcoming evenly-poised clash with this season's Italian Cup finalists, Fiorentina, provides the Hammers with a chance of adding a third European trophy to their cabinet, following UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup wins in the 20th century.
Undoubtedly, Vincenzo Italiano's team will present Moyes' men with the most difficult task of their UECL run. Six wins out of six in the group stage saw West Ham finish comfortably ahead of Anderlecht, Silkeborg and FCSB in the group stage, before negotiating AEK Larnaca, Gent and AZ Alkmaar in the knockout rounds to get to this stage.
Biggest game of Moyes' career
It could be fairly argued that next Wednesday night's final, even if it is of Europe's third-tier competition, could be the biggest game of Moyes' lengthy managerial career:
"I've had a lot of big games. It's another big one, really looking forward to it" was Moyes' unassuming response to that query.
West Ham's turnaround
What should not be doubted, is that it has been a huge turnaround for the East London club from the moments Moyes took charge of West Ham in both of his managerial stints with them.
On both occasions, coming in mid-season, the experienced Scotsman was tasked with navigating the team to Premier League safety. Now, his team are staring at the exciting prospect of possible European glory:
"I'm not sure that if you would have told anybody that in the period [last few seasons] we'd have finished 6th and 7th in the Premier League, we'd have got into a semi-final of a European competition and then the year after, the final of a European competition- I think if you'd have said that to people before I came in, they'd have said 'no, that's not true'.
"So, in a way, I think there's a lot of really good things going on. I think we've given the supporters and the club lots of good times and long may it continue. We want to try and keep it going, we want to grow it, we want to keep these sort of moments happening.
"I think to be in a cup final is special; especially for West Ham, for who it's been a while since we've been there."
Last season's European experience & improving disciplinary issues
Within his comments, Moyes touched briefly on West Ham's run to the UEFA Europa League semi-final last season. Their tournament was concluded with the eventual bitter exit to the eventual competition winners, Eintracht Frankfurt.
Travelling to Germany after a first-leg defeat at London Stadium, Aaron Cresswell's early red card left Moyes' team's situation practically hopeless. It then did not take Frankfurt long to double their aggregate lead, with Moyes being sent off as a result of kicking a ball at a ballboy towards the end of the fixture and Declan Rice being handed a two-match European ban for directly accusing the referee of corruption following full-time.
Moyes hopes and believes that the team and, perhaps, he can learn from that experience:
"I think we've, hopefully, learnt some lessons from our journey last year. When we got to the semi-final, we found it difficult – we got a player sent off – so, hopefully, we've learnt a little bit from that.
"But, ultimately, football is about emotions and people want to see managers showing their commitment, their energy to the team as well. Hopefully we're able to keep our emotions in check."
In fact, West Ham, along with Arsenal, are the only teams who completed the 2022/23 Premier League season without earning a single red card. The Hammers also accumulated the least yellow cards of all teams – a fact which caught Moyes somewhat by surprise:
"You always want to be well-disciplined in the final and in any games. I didn't know that stat – it's something which obviously is a good stat – we hope that's the way it remains and you also hope that the referees are looking at that as well and saying that, you know, [it's a] well-disciplined side, going about their job correctly and they're doing their homework as well."
A chance to be remembered by everybody at the club
West Ham supporters were, rather infamously, promised the club would reach the 'next level' after their move from the fans' beloved Upton Park to London Stadium.
With the first few seasons since 2016 bringing no notable signs of that happening, two consecutive appearances in the latter rounds of European competitions seems to suggest that the West Ham following are now seeing signs of improvement:
"Hopefully, everybody will look back and say: 'what was said has been, in some ways, delivered'.
"I believe that the players have a great opportunity to be remembered by everybody at this club. There's a new generation of young supporters developing in the east end of London, the club have moved to a 65,000-seater stadium now, which most weeks is full and it just shows you the depths of feeling there is for West Ham in this part of London. If we can give those young supporters the belief that their club can reach finals, win finals, then I think it'll be nothing but positive.
"I do believe the players we've got will give ourselves every chance of doing so – we've a really good group of players, we have strong international players, players who are hungry to succeed. So, I'm hoping we can show that on Wednesday night."
Preparation in Portugal & podcast controversy
With the break between the last league fixture of the season and the final, Moyes and his squad enjoyed some warm weather training in Portugal earlier this week, with some players sharing their time enjoying the sunshine, playing golf and reciting the club's supporters' chant in admiration of Saïd Benrahma on social media.
Moyes stressed his firm belief that the trip was a helpful influence within the team's preparation for next week:
"We've got 10 days until we play the game [from the last league fixture]. So, I think it was more important that we got away from the training ground here for a few days.
"The new environment gave us a chance to have a bit of time together. I'm a big believer in having a great team spirit behind the scenes and we've certainly got that.
"Some of the boys had a bit of time in the water, some a game of golf, but overall, we had a couple of days where we could change the scenery a little bit and just give them a little bit of change."
A slight bit of controversy did arise however, as Michail Antonio's appearance on the 'Filthy Fellas' podcast seemed to question his fellow centre-forward, Gianluca Scamacca's, fit within Moyes' tactical system and also question the Italian's fighting qualities.
The manager brushed aside any issues that this may have caused:
"I have no issues with Gianluca. Gianluca is a terrific player, really good footballer, someone who we really like. Unfortunately, he's been hit with injuries for periods of this season.
"Michy's [Antonio] got his own opinions – we're not getting into that" was Moyes brief address of the issue with a smile.
Disappointment in accessibility of final for supporters
Next week's fixture is set to be played at Eden Arena – a stadium with a capacity of under 20,000 – with the number of available tickets for both sets of supporters being extremely limited.
"I watched Fiorentina - Inter Milan last week [Copa Italia final]. Fiorentina had an incredible support and I think we would have had an incredible support.
"So, I hope in the future that maybe the stadiums can be bigger to host it. The support that we would have had, what Fiorentina would have had, I'm sure could have been much greater if it had been a bigger stadium.
"I hope that the supporters get a nice bar and a place where they can watch the game and hopefully enjoy [it]" said Moyes regarding the issue.
Preparations for a final
To conclude, Moyes was reminded that it has been a long time since the manager's most recent appearance in a final – 10 years to be exact, following his triumph in the FA Community Shield with Manchester United, a few years after an FA Cup final defeat when in charge of Everton – and asked about how the team's preparation possibly differs from his previous final appearances:
"You're right when you say it's a long time since a final [for myself], but in football, there's more managers that don't get to finals than there is who do, so getting to them, you should appreciate and respect every one you get.
"Every one will be different – a British final could be different preparation to a European final. This is the first time we've done a European final and it feels special, it feels a really big occasion, it feels like it's something that we want to make sure that we've covered everything and hopefully go into the game in the best condition we possibly can be.
"So, I don't think we're necessarily doing anything different or anything more than we've done before, because this is the first one we've done, but I do feel that our experience in the semi-final last year, I hope, will give us an indication of what to expect.
"Overall, I think the players are in a really good place - they're getting ready, but mentally, I see them in a good place and I hope that proves to be the case."
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West Ham will take on Fiorentina in the final of the UEFA Europa Conference League on Wednesday, 7 June, with the game set to kick-off at 20:00 BST in Prague. A win for the Hammers would bring them their first European trophy of the 21st century and a place in next season's UEFA Europa League group stage.