If you follow English football closely and have at least a shred of compassion in your soul, it was almost impossible not to feel at least a slight tinge of happiness for David Moyes on Wednesday night.

When West Ham United claimed the Europa Conference League crown with a 2-1 win over Fiorentina, it ended the club’s painful 43-year wait for a trophy.

But as someone who is not a West Ham fan and has little sympathy for their barren spell (in 2025 it will be a full century since my team won a trophy!), I was far more interested in the significance of the win for the team’s manager.

Moyes has been in the business for a quarter of a century, taking charge of Preston North End, Everton, Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland before his two spells at West Ham. But despite almost 1,100 games as a manager, until last week he had never won a proper, meaningful trophy. One promotion, one Community Shield, and a runners-up medal in the FA Cup was the sum total of his achievements.

It probably felt like his career – which had often threatened to take off, but which invariably stalled – had been validated

When the final whistle went, in a game the Hammers probably didn’t entirely deserve to win, you could see the combination of joy and relief etched on his face.

More than anything, it probably felt like his career – which had often threatened to take off, but which invariably stalled – had been validated. He finally had confirmation of his success in a field where very few ever get it. Touchingly, as the celebrations exploded on the pitch, he went over to his 89-year-old father and placed his winners’ medal round his neck, something he had probably longed to do since taking the helm at Preston.

This sort of stuff is what football is all about – a father and son celebrating a special success together at the end of a season when Moyes’s job had been under severe threat on numerous occasions.

Will Moyes manage to build on this triumph? Hard to tell, really. He’s done a pretty good job at West Ham during his second spell, but the Premier League is getting increasingly competitive with every passing season.

But whether he goes on to add to his trophy tally or this remains his only tangible triumph, at least he can now look back on his career with the comfort of knowing he is officially a winner.

And I don’t begrudge him that in the slightest.

 

Golf drives everyone crazy

One of the biggest stories of the sporting week came in the world of golf. Now this is a sport I don’t touch on very often because, frankly, it’s not really my cup of ‘tee’.

But the news that the sport’s main organising bodies – the PGA and DP World Tour – are going to merge with the Saudi-backed Liv Golf Tour was truly staggering.

For those who aren’t fully up to speed on this bizarre story, up until a year ago, all pro golf fell under the auspices of the PGA and DP. Then the Saudis decided they wanted to a do a touch of sportswashing and launched their own tour, pouring billions in prize money into it.

Liv Golf then poached some of the best players in the world away from the main tours with promises of riches beyond their wildest dreams. Obviously, the PGA were not very pleased with this, and those players were subsequently banned from playing in their major tournaments. Lawsuits followed, and it was all turning rather ugly.

Then last week, out of absolutely nowhere, it was announced that the three entities would be merging, everything was fine and dandy, all the various lawsuits would be dropped and they would now all be best friends forever. It was an absolute shocker of an announcement, and those players who had stayed loyal to the old institutions and turned down the Saudi money were, quite rightly, livid.

Yes, it’s nice to see the sport come back together under one umbrella; one very, very lucrative umbrella. But this most definitely wasn’t the way to do it.

Can you imagine if something similar happened in football?

Let’s say a rival governing body were created to run its own league outside the control of FIFA and UEFA. This league then did its utmost to entice the world’s best players, offering them insane amounts of money to defect. FIFA and UEFA would obviously go mental and do everything they could to stop it happening, banning rebel players from internationals and throwing lawsuits around like confetti.

Imagine then, a few months later, they came out and said they were joining forces with the new league. It would feel like a massive letdown, especially to those players who had remained loyal.

And that is why those golfers are going nuts.

At the end of the day, no matter how the PGA and DP dress this it up, this is little more than a Saudi takeover of the entire sport.

And that feels very wrong.

 

Stolen moments in Naples

You’ve got to hand it to Napoli fans – they’ve got a superb sense of humour.

You may recall a few months ago a group of the club’s ultras stole manager Luciano Spalletti’s Fiat Panda before issuing a ransom note that said the car would only be returned if he left the club.

At the time, it’s fair to say, those fans were not overjoyed with the way things were going on the pitch and decided to find an amusing way to express their feelings.

But fast forward a few months and Spalletti has just led the team to its first title since the Maradona days, 33 years ago.

And far from being unwanted, he is now very much a local hero.

Yet despite his success (or possibly because of it) Luciano has decided to leave the club anyway and take a one-year sabbatical from the game instead of seeing out his contract.

Well, the ultras are nothing if not as good as their word and, now that he’s leaving, they have returned the car. Well, only the steering wheel and the CD collection that was in it, but better than nothing.

Of course, I can’t condone crime in any shape or form. But this is a cracking little bit of naughtiness with a magnificent ending.

 

E-mail: James@quizando.com

Twitter: @Maltablade