Exclusive Brian Dear: It may take 58 years again for West Ham to win a European trophy. This is how my friend Bobby Moore would react

Exclusive and picture by Alessandro Schiavone at London Stadium

LONDON- Young West Ham supporters will go grey before they see their side triumph in Europe again.

That's the view of legendary Hammers one-timer Brian Dear who lifted both the FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup at Upton Park in the mid-60s.

After finishing 6th in the Premier League in 2021 and a position lower 12 months on, the Hammers also had a Europa League semifinal finish to show for their efforts three years ago. And to cap it all off they won the Conference League to end a 58-year wait for continental success in 2023.

Yet albeit that was only two springs ago, it feels like ancient history now with the Hammers languishing in 15th in the standings and about to enter a summer of uncertainty with a major rebuild on the cards.

Reflecting on the 2-1 win over Fiorentina in the Czech Republic two years ago Dear, 81, told Capital Football: “I was in Prague in the middle of the pitch on that game and that was a great night.

“It’s 60 years since we won the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

"If it's gonna take that long again? Yes, I think it’s gonna be tough to be back so quick, it’s gonna take time.”

"But it can be done, we can do it."

Asked if the club are in dire need of open-heart surgery by getting rid of a host of underperforming flops, he said: "No, [but] all of a sudden people expect so much.

"Sometimes a manager is only as good as his players isn’t he?

"If he’s coaching them players during the week and they don’t perform to what he wants them to do on a match day, where do you go from there?

"[Nowadays] they are under pressure more.

"When I played, the board of directors weren’t mainly businessmen. They didn’t pay as much money to buy a footballer.

"Now [with the money that] you can buy one player you could have bought our whole team.

" The club expect more …there we go. But life will go on."

Yet despite the grim situation at London Stadium the club's greatest-ever player Bobby Moore, who passed away in 1992, would not be throwing the toys out of the pram if he were to see this.

But instead he would offer a word or two of wisdom to this struggling side.

Dear added: "Seeing this he’d like the stadium and love the atmosphere when we’re doing well.

"If he would turn in his grave? No, I think he’d just take it as it is.

"Life goes on, doesn’t it?

"You can’t complain, for three years he was captain of England winning an FA Cup and an European Cup Winners’ cup having a World Cup medal.

"Sometimes Ron Greenwood used to say: ‘how do you think so and so played, Bobby?’ He’d say: ‘He’s done alright, he’s done his best’.

"He’d never criticise you, not even on the field. He was just a real, real good guy."