Perry Groves has told talkSPORT it will be ‘the biggest disgrace in Premier League history’ if West Ham are relegated this season.
The Hammers are officially the most out-of-form team in the top flight. They are without a win in their last five Premier League games, with two draws and three defeats.
While David Moyes enjoyed a brilliant return to the dugout, beating Bournemouth 4-0 in the first game of his second spell in charge, it’s all gone downhill from there. In seven games since, the only other win under his belt was against League One Gillingham in the FA Cup.
West Ham currently sit in the bottom three, although are just one point from safety.
However, they are now entering a nightmare run of fixtures which will seem they play Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in the space of seven matches.
If that period goes as badly as many expect it to, they could well find themselves cut adrift at the foot of the table with little hope of rescue.
That would be quite a stunning turn of events for the east London club, who under Premier League-winning manager Manuel Pellegrini – who was sacked in December – were tipped to break into the top six and mark a return to European football this season.
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And, in a barb at owners David Gold and David Sullivan’s running of the club, Groves says it would be one of the most shocking Premier League moments ever if they go down, given their resources.
Speaking to talkSPORT host Jim White, the former Arsenal man said: “If West Ham go down I think that would be the biggest disgrace in Premier League history of a team getting relegated.
“With everything they have, they only have to pay £2.5million for the stadium so they can invest everything in the players, and West Ham fans will say they haven’t invested enough, but they’ve got decent players, too many number tens probably.
“If you look at a club like Sheffield United, their transfer policy is very calculated. They sign players to fit different positions.
“But with West Ham’s is just: ‘let’s go and get a load of flair players and see if we can gel them all together’. There’s no connected thinking there.
“There’s a little period of games coming up for West Ham, where fans would have looked at the fixtures and thought: ‘If we get through these we’re not too detached from the other teams around us’.
“But their next seven games are Man City and Liverpool away, Southampton at home, Arsenal away, Wolves at home, Spurs away and Chelsea at home.
“So those Southampton and Wolves games, they are huge for West Ham’s survival – they’ve got to be getting at least four points out of that.
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“David Moyes has got to try and change the mentality at West Ham, it’s been a bit too comfortable.
“It’s what I call a pension club.
“They’re in London, they’ve got a big new stadium, they pay decent money, players go there and not enough of the players have cared for West Ham on the pitch, not enough of them have put in a shift.
“They’ve have got a mountain to climb.”
