Club History

2020s

The 2020s began with the upheaval of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the shutdown of football in the spring of 2020.

When the pause button was pressed, following the Hammers' 1-0 defeat at Arsenal on 7 March, David Moyes' men sat 16th in the Premier League table, with 27 points from 29 games and only out of the bottom three on goal difference.

Work, therefore, needed to be done when the campaign eventually resumed, without supporters present, in late-June.

A dramatic 3-2 win over Chelsea at London Stadium on 1 July 2020, in which Andriy Yarmolenko scored an 89th minute winner, sparked the run towards safety, with 12 points from the final seven games securing a 16th place finish, five points clear of AFC Bournemouth in 18th.

Moyes had completed his task of keeping the Hammers in the top-flight, and he immediately set about building upon that in his first full campaign since taking the reins back.

The 2020/21 season was a huge success, with the Irons winning a record 19 Premier League matches to amass a record 65 points and a record +15 goal difference on their way to a sixth-place finish and qualification for the UEFA Europa League group stage.

The Irons were back in main European competition for the first time in 15 years, and it came as the reward for an outstanding campaign, albeit one which supporters had to enjoy from home, save for 2,000 Hammers who were able to witness our 3-1 defeat to Manchester United in December 2020, and the 10,000 present for the 3-0 victory over Southampton in the season finale.

Tomáš Souček and Michail Antonio shared top goalscorer honours with ten each as the former claimed the Hammer of the Year prize, becoming the first Czech player since Luděk Mikloško to win the award 30 years previously.

The 2021/22 season was also memorable as Moyes' Irons reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, defeating Dinamo Zagreb, Genk, Rapid Vienna, Sevilla and Olympique Lyonnais before losing to Eintracht Frankfurt.

The campaign began with the return of full stadia, and 60,000 Hammers were able to celebrate a 4-1 victory over Leicester City to get our home fixtures started, with Michail Antonio's brace seeing him overtake Paolo Di Canio as the Club's record Premier League goalscorer.

The Hammers would finish seventh in the Premier League, and qualified for the UEFA Europa Conference League - the first time in the Club's history they had secured European football in back-to-back seasons by their league position.

While the Premier League posed more problems in 2022/23 - the team flirted with relegation danger before eventually pulling clear to finish 14th - it was on the European stage that they made history throughout the campaign.

The six wins from six in the Europa Conference League group stage meant they became the first team in the competition's short history to complete a perfect group phase, with the eventual winning run of ten games setting a record for English clubs in European competition.

Victories over AEK Larnaca, KAA Gent and AZ Alkmaar in the knockout rounds in the spring set up a final against ACF Fiorentina in Prague.

There, the east Londoners ended a 43-year wait for major silverware in dramatic fashion, as Jarrod Bowen streaked clear in the 90th minute to secure a 2-1 win after Fiorentina's Giacomo Bonaventura had earlier cancelled out Saïd Benrahma's penalty.

Captain Declan Rice lifted the trophy at a jubilant Eden Arèna as around 30,000 Hammers in the Czech capital - officially 6,000 in the stadium and many more in the city - showed their delight.

An unforgettable parade through the streets of east London, from the Club's former home at the Boleyn Ground to Stratford Town Hall, saw an estimated 70,000 supporters line the route and capped a memorable season for the Club as they added a second major European trophy to their cabinet.

The 2023/24 season proved to be Moyes' final campaign in charge. The Scotsman led West Ham to another top-half Premier League finish as the Irons ended the season in ninth place.

The Hammers also topped their European group again, this time in the UEFA Europa League, and went through to the knockout stages, where they defeated German club SC Freiburg before being eliminated in the quarter-finals by Bundesliga champions-elect Bayer Leverkusen.

The summer of 2024 saw Spaniard Julen Lopetegui appointed as the Club's first-ever full-time head coach, working alongside German technical director Tim Steidten, who had joined himself in July 2023.