Sheringham backs West Ham to win the Europa Conference League

 

Former England striker Teddy Sheringham has backed West Ham United to win the Europa Conference League final on Wednesday.

The Hammers will go head-to-head with Fiorentina In Prague with a place in next season’s Europa League up for grabs.

It has been a difficult season for West Ham, with the club flirting with the Premier League relegation zone for much of the season.

David Moyes’ side eventually clawed their way to safety, finishing with 40 points to claim 14th place in the standings.

With success in the domestic cups also eluding them, the Europa Conference League has proved to be a rare bright spark in a troubled campaign.

After booking their place in the group stage, West Ham rattled off six successive victories to roar into the round of 16.

Victories over AEK Larnaca, Gent and AZ Alkmaar have fired the Hammers into their first European final since 1976.

Sheringham, who played for West Ham towards the end of his career, believes his former team have what it takes to lift the trophy.

“West Ham have been unbelievable, and I’m delighted for them,” he told Betway.

“It’s been tough for them in the league this season, but I think it was the right decision to stick with David Moyes. I’d love to see them win it.”

Defeating Fiorentina will be no easy task for West Ham, with the Serie A side enjoying an impressive run to the final.

They showed plenty of determination to see off Basel after extra time in the semi-final and will fancy their chances of becoming the second Italian team to lift the trophy.

Roma achieved the feat in the inaugural season of the competition and subsequently went on to reach the final of the 2022/23 Europa League.

They made several shrewd additions to their squad last summer to ensure they had the depth of squad needed to cope with UEFA’s second-tier competition.

It will be a similar story for West Ham if they win the Europa Conference League, especially with the fans demanding an upturn in their Premier League fortunes.

Question marks over Declan Rice’s future at the club are an added complication, although he may be more inclined to stay if the Hammers are in the Europa League.

Arsenal and Manchester United have been strongly linked with Rice and it would be no surprise to see the midfielder move on this summer.

However, selling Rice would give West Ham valuable funds to play with in the transfer market, and Sheringham thinks that could be crucial to their hopes of success next term.

“Every team in Europe will need a bigger squad to deal with the extra games,” Sheringham added.

“Every manager understands how difficult it is to get regular consistent performances out of players when they’re playing and travelling so regularly.

“When you’re playing in Europe, you’ve always got your eye on the next big game coming. It can be easy to take your eye off the smaller games in the league.

“That’s where a good manager can keep things fresh to stop that happening.”