West Ham manager David Moyes is concerned that ongoing fan unrest will make it difficult for the club to attract top class international players.
Large sections of the Hammers faithful are unhappy with the way the East London club is being run by its board of David Gold, David Sullivan and Karen Brady.
Frustrations boiled over into unsavoury scenes during their recent 3-0 home loss to Burnley, with several fans running onto the pitch and a large protest taking place beneath the directors box.
West Ham currently sit in 17th place in the Premier League just two points above the drop. Speaking on the eve of todays crunch encounter against fellow strugglers Southampton, Moyes has revealed that not only will the continued unrest hardly help as his side try to avoid relegation to the Championship, but will also hurt the club in terms of attracting top players to the London Stadium.
“I want this club to appeal to really good international players. I want them to say ‘I want to join West Ham United’. I don’t think what happened against Burnley is going to make those players want to join us. I’m saying we’ve got to show why top players should want to come here. If you’re a player, you want to come to a club where the supporters are right behind the team. You don’t want to come somewhere where they’re not.
“So I wanted to reassure our players by saying if anything happens again here’s how we should react and what we should do. It’s important we don’t capitulate if we go 1-0 down, although against Burnley there were mitigating circumstances.” Moyes said.