David Moyes’ latest Tomas Soucek claims will make every West Ham fan love the midfielder even more.

Over the course of West Ham’s Europa Conference League winning season, many fans were left infuriated with David Moyes’ refusal to drop Tomas Soucek despite his woeful form. Fortunately, the Czech Republic captain’s performances were much better during the last campaign.

Moyes has since revealed that this was because Declan Rice’s determination to play further forward meant Soucek had to sit back and defend more when he’s much better playing as a box-to-box midfielder.

No matter how poor or well he’s performing though, it’s impossible not to love Soucek. He’s charming, funny and, above all else, extremely hardworking. However, Moyes’ latest comments about his former player will make the East Londoner’s admiration hit new heights.

“Tomas Soucek is a brilliant guy, first and foremost,” Moyes began. He changed us at West Ham when he came to us.”

“We used to say that we had to lock the gates at the training ground. He was in there every day and he wanted to run. So committed and he didn’t want days off. He gave the whole club a lift, he really did. Over the seasons, he has been a great player for us. He really has been. Scoring goals. Just his all-general attitude. Very rarely injured and a great boy.”

“We would always see him getting forward and he has got great energy. I think the Czechs have played him more like a six, which has meant that he hasn’t been able to show a lot of his better qualities. Sitting and holding would not be the one I would see him doing best, but again, I think he might be taking one for the team here and doing a specific job.”

It remains to be seen what sort of role Soucek will play under Julen Lopetegui but, from the sounds of it, he’s the sort of player every manager would love to have. Hopefully he can continue to have a big impact on games like he has over the last season.