Barry Fry has admitted that he was surprised by the initial departure of David Moyes from West Ham United, telling the Transfer Tavern exclusively that he did a good enough job to stay at the club.

Moyes has worked miracles at the Hammers this season and the club are currently fifth in the Premier League table ahead of Monday’s clash with Wolves.

They are just two points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and have a relatively soft run in which the only games against clubs ahead of them come against the Blues and Leicester City.

It is Moyes’ second crack at the job, however, as he was first appointed in November of 2017, with the club in the relegation zone.

Moyes was only handed a six-month contract and he managed to steer the Hammers to safety, doing so with two games to spare.

His contract was not renewed, though, and the Hammers instead appointed Manuel Pellegrini as boss.

In 2018/19, Pellegrini did oversee a 10^th-placed finish but he was sacked midway through the following season, with the Irons again flirting with danger, and he again kept them up.

And Fry thinks he should have kept his job initially after managing them to survival.

He told TT: “In a year he's turned it round. To be fair, I thought he did brilliant for them first time round. And I was very surprised when they did didn't offer him a further contract.

“But as soon as they came calling I know David came rushing down the motorway, he couldn’t wait to sign for West Ham because he loved his time there before.”