David Moyes hoping to inspire new generation of West Ham fans

West Ham manager David Moyes wants his players to inspire a new generation of fans at the London Stadium as the club prepare to take part in the Europa League.

The Hammers earned their place in the group stages of the competition with a tremendous sixth place finish in last season's Premier League, finishing ahead of London rivals Tottenham and Arsenal.

Moyes is yet to strengthen his squad ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, but it's likely there will be a number of incomings at West Ham owing to the increase in fixtures on the club's calendar. A striker, central defender and winger are among the rumoured priority areas, with Tammy Abraham and Jesse Lingard the highest profile players linked with a permanent move.

But speaking to the club's official website, Moyes was keen to focus on other areas of business - highlighting the desire to entertain 60,000 capacity crowds at the London Stadium, as well as inspire a new generation of West Ham supporters.

"We are excited because as we know it’s such a great stadium to host so many people," Moyes said. "We have big, big crowds at every game now because the team has done so well. If I was a West Ham supporter I’d be wanting to get in and get a ticket to the game because what I’m seeing is Declan Rice, you’ve got Tomáš, you’ve got Micky Antonio, we’ve got a really, really exciting team in the making at the moment, so I think I’d want to come and watch.

"And we’ll do our best to entertain them and we want them to come and support us, to get behind the team and support the players, chant their names and hopefully we’ll give them something to chant about. 

"Everywhere I go people are talking about how good they thought we were to watch and what it was like, so I think the supporters will be desperate to get back and live and watch the games. The 10,000 who watched us beat Southampton in the last game of the season, I don’t think they’d be disappointed with that game and it was great to finish with such a win and obviously confirm our place in Europe as well. It was a big moment for us.  

"We have to make sure we’re promoting the new, young generation of supporters at West Ham because we don’t want them all going to maybe the clubs who have been more successful in recent years, we need them to make sure we get them in at the games. We want the stadium full, we want them to come and enjoy the experience.

"The team’s changed, the club’s changing and we’re looking forward to having a really good support there helping us along the way."

The Hammers have a number of friendlies still to play before the season gets underway, testing their skills against Reading, Celtic, Atalanta and Premier League new boys Brentford in the coming weeks.