During David Moyes’ second spell in charge of West Ham, the Scotsman oversaw the most successful period in the club’s modern history.

That run peaked with the Hammers lifting the Europa Conference League in 2023, part of a sequence of three successive European campaigns.

But even after delivering silverware and creating memories West Ham supporters will treasure for years, he left at the end of the following season, with criticism of his pragmatic playing style growing too strong to ignore.

Former West Ham forward Michail Antonio produced some of the best football of his career under Moyes. He scored 55 goals in 182 appearances for the former Manchester United manager and believes the Scot quickly grasped the true character of the club.

“He just knew the culture of the club and how to get the boys going,” Antonio told FourFourTwo. “We didn’t play the best football, but we got results.”

Antonio does admit, though, that this method did not always win over the supporters.

“Obviously the fans were frustrated by the style of play,” he said. “But we were winning and managed to achieve things with it.”

In Moyes’ first spell, he was brought in during November 2017 to keep the club from going down, but despite achieving that aim, he was not given the job on a permanent basis at the end of the season.

“That’s why I was surprised he didn’t get the job permanently after his first spell, because he kept us up. Then the second time, the fans did get annoyed with the style of play and wanted us to play better.”

Moyes returned for his second stint in December 2019, with West Ham sitting 17th in the table, and remained for five years before the club decided it wanted to move in a different direction.

Although many pundits questioned that decision, Antonio admitted there was also a feeling inside the Hammers dressing room that allowing Moyes to go carried an element of risk.

“Yeah, because of what he was achieving,” added the Jamaica international. “We kept getting into Europe and doing well.

“But in the last year, we were getting close to relegation, so you thought, ‘Even though we’re doing well in Europe, we might need to find a new philosophy.’”

Michail Antonio’s autobiography, Humans Not Robots, published by HarperCollins, is available now.