West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to the media at length on Friday afternoon ahead of facing Leicester City on Sunday.
The Hammers head to the King Power Stadium hoping to end their Premier League season with a win against a Foxes side desperate to avoid relegation.
Here is every word Moyes said on the game, team news, Gianluca Scamacca and Declan Rice.
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Are you pleased to be coming to the end of a long season?
It’s been an incredibly long season. I’m sure all managers today will be feeling the same, looking forward to some rest and recovery and a bit of holiday time. Most of the managers have probably been back since July 1 last year and I know we had a bit of a break for the World Cup but it’s been a long season for everybody.
How pleasing has it been to get a rare free midweek?
I’ve not been sure what to do this week because of it. But I’ve found plenty of things to keep myself occupied. We’ve had a midweek game every week since March, nine games in April and every Saturday-midweek in May as well. It’s been relentless so just to have a couple of days downtime has been fabulous.
Has it been tough to get motivated for this Leicester City clash with the Europa Conference League final on the horizon?
I don’t see it that way. I take every game one at a time, that’s all we can ever do. It’s a chance to get league place higher up and we’re all well aware of the value of that in the Premier League. If you’d given me this position a few weeks ago I’d have snapped your hand off because we go into the last day without any real problems and more importantly we go into it knowing we’ve got a cup final in a week or so’s time.
Is it a tougher game because Leicester City need a win to try and avoid relegation?
I think it does because we’re all aware. I'm glad it’s not us in the situation but we have to go and do our job and our job is to get another win and try and finish a bit higher up the league. If we could, it would be important for us. We’re preparing ourselves for a final and we need to get everyone in the right condition for that.
How difficult is it to try and strike the balance between maintaining fitness and keeping the momentum up?
Yeah, all those things you’ve said are correct, we want everybody fresh but we want them all able and prepared and we don’t want the gap in time to be too long between the games. All those things are coming into our thinking. We want to keep playing as well as we have. We’ve improved greatly in the last month or so, had a great victory last weekend and a great win in Alkmaar as well. We want to try and keep that run going.
Is it a surprise that Leicester City are in the relegation battle?
I think this season has been full of surprises. I think whether it’s been one of those seasons where with the World Cup coming in, there’s been a lot of changes, but I think the teams at the bottom, a lot of the sides probably weren’t expecting to be there but we’ve seen some sides perform brilliantly well this season and got themselves higher up the league, which has made the bottom half of the league incredibly competitive.
The club are putting on travel accommodation for the families of the players in Prague. Is that the case and does that show the family value of the club?
Well, I would expect it. If you get to a final, you would expect your clubs to do that. But, look, we’re looking forward to all of the families being there and the club have looked after us as well.
Did you set a target for Declan Rice to score more goals this season?
I think it is something that people have questioned, can he score goals? He can score goals and in his own way, he’s gone about it. Yes, we wanted him to add more goals but he plays a crucial part but we’ve got other midfield players who have scored goals and Declan’s probably the least likely of the group we’ve got who mainly does more defensive duties, but he has got great abilities to score goals and I’m glad he has been showing that recently.
You have coached some special players in your time as a manager. Where does he rank for you?
Yes, I would never rank the players I’ve coached the players are different and lots of them have got different talents. Look, I’ve had the privilege of being the manager of them and sometimes, you have to be very lucky to have these types of players at the football club wherever you go. Through my career, I’ve been really lucky to have some of these special talents and Declan is certainly among that group.
Is Nayef Aguerd fit after missing the win over Leeds United?
Yes, he will be. Nayef is available. He’s trained today so we expect him to be back. He missed out with a dead leg he picked up against the game on the Thursday against Alkmaar.
Have you got any other fresh injury concerns?
We had a couple. Emerson had a knock to his knee, so I just need to check how he is. He’s been out today but we will wait to see how he is. Apart from that, I think Gianluca Scamacca is still recovering from his knee operation, so that would be all we’ve got at the moment.
Are you expecting Gianluca Scamacca back fit the for the new season?
I am. I don’t think he’s too far away now, but not quite close enough. He had his operation about four weeks ago, so he has still a few weeks of rehab to do but hopefully, he will be back ready at the start of pre-season.
What threats are you expecting from Leicester?
I think I’m glad it’s a game where it’s not us needing to win it, because it was always a hard-looking game. They’ve had a great team over recent seasons, they really have, Leicester. I think it’s a bit of a surprise to everyone that they’re in the position they are in. They have got some top players and we’re going to have to defend well and deal with it well. Hopefully, we can.
Is Gianluca Scamacca definitely going to miss the Europa Conference League final?
I see him being nowhere near it. He’s not back training and not back. He’s still doing his rehab in Italy just now, so I don’t expect to see him back before then, no.
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