West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady admits it’s ‘DISAPPOINTING’ to be in a relegation scrap

Relegation-threatened West Ham will continue to back under-pressure manager David Moyes, although Irons vice-chair Karren Brady urged that it has been a ‘disappointing season’ considering the ‘extraordinarily’ expensive window the club experienced last summer. 

The Hammers‘ relegation fears grew after their humiliating 4-0 defeat against Brighton at the Amex last weekend, with Moyes’ side sitting just one point and two spots above the dreaded drop zone.

Despite leading West Ham to successive top-seven finishes, qualifying for European football in back-to-back seasons, Moyes is under significant pressure at the London Stadium as he gears up for an almighty relegation scrap, with six points separating nine teams at the bottom of the Premier League table.

When asked about the torrid campaign, Brady could not hide her disappointment, insisting that West Ham spent an awful lot of money last summer and have yet to reap the rewards.

West Ham signed Brazilian international Lucas Paqueta for a club record fee of £53million last summer, while also luring Gianluca Scamacca for £35m from Sassuolo and Nayef Aguerd for £35m from Rennes.

 West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady admitted the club spent an ‘extraordinarily large’ amount of money last summer – but continues to back David Moyes despite the ‘disappointing’ campaign

The Hammers manager (above) is under significant pressure amid West Ham’s relegation scrap

Maxwel Cornet (£17.5m), Emerson (£15m), Thilo Kehrer (£15m) and Alphonse Areola (£7.75m) completed an expensive summer window for the Hammers, who were keen to kick on and continue challenging for spots in and around the top six. 

‘I can’t put any pressure on David Moyes because he puts enough on himself,’ Brady told BBC Sport.

‘The really important thing is for everyone to stick together to be really focused, understand what the issues are.

‘It’s been a disappointing season. After two great seasons and the success we had in Europe, things haven’t gone the way we wanted.

‘We spent an extraordinarily large amount of money in the summer. Undoubtedly, it takes people time to settle in and create a new way of playing with such a lot of new players.’

Speaking after the 4-0 defeat on the south coast, Moyes admitted it was disappointing to perform so poorly after a successful 4-0 triumph against Nottingham Forest the weekend prior.

‘That’s football for you, isn’t it? We win well last week at home and then we lose badly again away from home today,’ he said during his post-match interview. 

Brady watches the Irons alongside Paul Peschisolido (right) at the London Stadium in February

West Ham captain Declan Rice cuts a dejected figure after his side’s 4-0 loss against Brighton

‘What went wrong? I would have to give some praise to Brighton, but we lost a terrible first goal from a penalty kick, [which] we should have easily dealt with. The second one was from a corner kick, so we’re climbing about from it, right away.

‘And at that time it wasn’t all about Brighton’s good play which got them the goals, it was, I felt, we could have certainly dealt with the penalty kick situation [and] I felt we should have dealt with the corner kick better than we did do.’

Hoping to use the Europa Conference League as a tonic for their miserable Premier League form, West Ham travel to Cyprus to take on AEK Larnaca in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

The Hammers head back home to face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.