SIMON JORDAN: David Moyes is the best thing that happened to West Ham for a very long time. Give him a new deal! PLUS, Kalvin Phillips’ agents have to get him out of Manchester City now

• West Ham fans should have optimism for the future under manager David Moyes
• Moyes has achieved every year at West Ham and should be given a new contract 
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’

Are we seeing the beginning of a new set of clubs challenging and threatening the Premier League’s established order?

Newcastle, Aston Villa and Brighton are all in the conversation, but there is a persuasive argument that the self-proclaimed ‘we are massive’ West Ham deserve to be too.

The club that would have you believe they won the World Cup in 1966 have never had it so good in the Premier League era. They appear to have financial stability and have so much opportunity in front of them. These are halcyon days and a large proportion of the credit goes to David Moyes.

He no longer warrants the dithering Dave moniker he was given at Everton — if he ever really did — due to his indecision about new signings and is West Ham’s anointed Moyesiah now.

The Hammers flirted with relegation last season and the Europa Conference League run appeared to be papering over the cracks, but even in those moments of bleakness, when it looked like his number might be up, Moyes led his team away from the bottom three and won a European trophy.

David Moyes deserves credit for providing stability at West Ham over recent seasons

West Ham are enjoying their best period of the Premier League era under Moyes’ leadership

Despite flirting with relegation Moyes kept West Ham up and achieved European glory

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He showed signs of being a bit flimsy, a bit fragile. I had a conversation with him at a function where he was irritated that radio phone-ins were suggesting he should be sacked and running polls on his future.

My comment to him was: ‘Moysie, that’s the price on the ticket for you highly-paid football managers’. I walked away thinking he sounded like he was done. It just shows how much I knew!

When doom and gloom is forecast, good managers with the right attitude can overcome significant challenges. Moyes did just that, proving his substance by blocking out negativity from the stands to end the club’s 42-year trophy drought.

He is the best thing that has happened to West Ham for a very long time. He showed great strength of character to take the job on again after being bumped out for Manuel Pellegrini in his first spell. It was a stroke of luck to get Moyes back and showed the measure of the man that he was prepared to have another go.

He had been treated like a disposable razor by West Ham. He had come in, sharpened them up and when they thought he was blunt, was thrown out for a manager the owners thought was a big name for the fans.

But the days of Moyes being disposable are over. He really is a man for all seasons because every season he has achieved something significant for West Ham — survival after the mess Pellegrini made of it followed by sixth, seventh and a trophy.

There should be huge optimism about everything at the club now. The days of pitch invasions protesting against the owners appear to be gone. Hysterical grumbles about the London stadium – or the taxpayer stadium as I like to call it – are gone. Lingering doubts about the manager surely must be gone. Like everything in football, it all hinges on success and previous transgressions seem to have been forgotten and forgiven by a re-engaged fanbase.

Moyes looks re-energised this season too, he’s a better version of the manager we saw take over at Old Trafford in 2013 and would certainly be better equipped to manage Manchester United than he was ten years ago.

Moyes looks re-energised and is a better manager than the one who struggled at Man United

West Ham sensibly reinvested the money from Declan Rice’s sale and are reaping the benefits

The Hammers appear to have avoided making mistakes like signing Gianluca Scamacca

He suffered the consequences but now Moyes is back to being the man that was good enough to be United’s chosen one. He has been through massive adversity, overcome significant pitfalls and has the battle scars from a very difficult period of his career when he made bad choices at Real Sociedad and bad observations and outcomes at Sunderland.

Now, his redemption is complete. He’s still only 60 but seems to have been around forever. This is someone who should be cherished and celebrated and my word West Ham are lucky to have him.

Moyes, a fundamentally decent man, is beginning to earn the right to be in the conversation for one of the marquee sides again. I’m not suggesting he could get those jobs but if he was linked with a bigger club, there wouldn’t be a sharp intake of breath anymore. He could excel pretty much anywhere but if he’s given the right support, he should want to continue at West Ham because it’s a great job.

It’s up to the club to continue this progress and put Moyes in a position where he doesn’t need to look beyond east London – because where would be a step up from West Ham these days?

Everything looks rosy in the garden. The club will be profitable this year after banking £105million for Declan Rice having made an £11m profit on £250m turnover in their last set of accounts and are attracting remarkable attendances.

They appear to have reinvested the Rice money sensibly this season – mistakes such as Gianluca Scamacca have not been repeated – and have a team competing on more than one front.

This is now a top end football club. Everything seems to be aligned and West Ham are riding a wave of positivity. At the centre of it all is Moyes. It’s perhaps a bit of a stretch for the mob who will always be opposed to the owners but, for many, they look like heroes now for their significant financial support, the players are heroes for their achievements on the pitch and the manager’s a hero for delivering silverware to a club unfamiliar with the feeling.

So what now? The top four is a challenge and anyone expecting it must understand how difficult it is. Outlandish proclamations as we heard from David Sullivan in the past about the Champions League, only to replace Dimitri Payet with Robert Snodgrass, are unhelpful. For West Ham, occupying sixth or seventh is a remarkable achievement. Being successful in Europe, buying well and being able to compete in a stadium that draws big crowds should be more than enough to keep fans happy.

West Ham should continue to target repeated appearances in Europe to keep their fans happy 

Moyes contract expires at the end of the season and he should be given a new long-term deal

Tying Moyes down to a new, long term contract must now be a priority. He is arguably one of the most capable managers in the Premier League with a reputation back to where it was when he left Everton.

I spoke to Stuart Pearce, a former member of David’s coaching staff, and his summation of Moyes was: decency, integrity, work ethic and attention to detail. They’re the key attributes of a very good manager and Moyes, like Eddie Howe, is proving you don’t need an overseas coaches to punch hard.

His current deal expires at the end of the season and if I was running that club, a new contract for Moyes would be top of my to-do list.

Kalvin’s City stay is a huge act of self-harm

Kalvin Phillips’ move to Manchester City has to go down as one of the biggest ever acts of self-harm on a football career.

He is clearly not part of Pep Guardiola’s plans so why waste the best years of your career on a fool’s errand? Eventually he’ll lose his England place because in the end, even the most ridiculously loyal managers like Gareth Southgate are going to pick someone else ahead of him.

His agents should stop spending all their energy trying to recruit Ivan Toney for their next fee opportunity and instead get Phillips to ply his trade somewhere more befitting of his talents, somewhere he might actually be wanted and where he would have a chance of getting in the team. Perhaps they are too busy battling against FIFA’s long overdue crackdown on agents to worry about their actual clients.

Kalvin Phillips must leave Manchester City to avoid wasting the best years of his career

Phillips will eventually lose his place in the England squad if he remains on the Man City bench

Eustace deserved better from Birmingham’s owners 

John Eustace managed Birmingham City through a very challenging period where the fans hated the club’s absent owners and despite that background noise, now it has new investors and a more stable environment, he took them to sixth in the Championship.

And for that he’s been binned for Wayne Rooney by what looks like a bunch of football autograph hunters.

What a sad world it is that he has been replaced by a bloke with a 27 per cent win record as a manager — enough to just survive in the second tier. Wow, isn’t football a wonderful place.

John Eustace did an impressive job at Birmingham City under challenging circumstances

Birmingham City’s owners appointed Wayne Rooney on Wednesday to succeed Eustace 

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify

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