Why David Moyes will get no sympathy from Sunderland fans when West Ham axe falls

Former Sunderland boss David Moyes appears to be on the brink of the sack at West Ham, with the club reportedly already considering replacements.

Moyes has rebuilt his career with the Hammers, guiding them into Europe on two occasions, but a run of just one point in their last seven games has left them in the Premier League relegation zone, despite a summer spent of more than £100million.

According to the report in the Telegraph, West Ham are now actively considering replacements, with Nuno Espirito Santo and Rafa Benitez both mentioned.

The good news for Moyes is that his next game is against Everton, who appear to be even worse than them.

If or when Moyes does get sacked, there will be little sympathy for him on Wearside. I speak only for myself, but no figure at the club in my time supporting Sunderland has got under my skin in a negative way like Moyes did.

I just missed the Lawrie McMenemy era at Sunderland, with my first game in October 1987, but I certainly feel about Moyes similarly to how my parents felt about McMenemy.

The disrespect with which Moyes treated Sunderland, acting like the club was beneath him from day one and declaring a hopeless relegation battle after just two games. The way he made Sunderland an old social club for his ageing former Everton mates like Steven Pienaar, Joleon Lescott and Darron Gibson.

The way he spoke down to supporters after each and every one of his failures. The way he prostrated my football club before John Terry and offered it up as part of his retirement nonsense at Stamford Bridge. The way he paid actual money for Donald Love, the ultimate ‘that’ll do’ signing because apparently it was all Sunderland was worth.

The way he took a really likable and talented bunch of players that Sam Allardyce had assembled and stopped managing them to the point where they were useless. He destroyed Jan Kirchhoff, humiliated Wahbi Khazri, allowed Lamine Kone to essentially go on strike, and ignored Yann M’Villa to the point he expressed his heartbreak on Instagram.

The way he made Didier Ndong my club’s record signing, and then complained to everyone who’d listen that he didn’t have any money.

Even after he left he annoyed me, always seemingly rallying his friends in the media to paint him as the victim of Sunderland by airbrushing it from his career like he was so up against it that it didn't matter.

The way he always spoke about Sunderland, and acted towards the club, was that he took over a lost cause and everyone should be grateful to the mighty David Moyes for doing it a favour. That’s certainly how the narrative has gone all the way through.

However, the reality is that Moyes took over a good Sunderland side left by Sam Allardyce and dismantled and discarded it piece by piece until there was nothing left to salvage - all inside a year.

There are a lot of people who have done wrong by Sunderland in my lifetime but none, in my opinion at least, as intentionally disrespectfully as David Moyes. If he is about to finally get found out at West Ham, then it's not before time.

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