David Moyes says Mark Noble reaction to Grady Diangana transfer highlighted ‘solidarity’ of West Ham squad

David Moyes says Mark Noble and the West Ham squad showed "real solidarity" in their reaction to the sale of Grady Diangana.

The Hammers academy graduate, having looked set to start the season, was sold to West Brom for £18million in order to raise funds for defensive recruits ahead of the new season.

The winger was a popular member of the squad and Hammers captain Noble did not hide his feelings, tweeting within an hour of the announcement that he was "gutted, angry and sad" at the decision. Declan Rice liked the tweet while, on Instagram, Jack Wilshere told Diangana to "go and do your thing in a club that respects you".

Noble held talks to clear the air with co-owner David Sullivan and vice-chairman Karren Brady last Saturday and Moyes is confident there is no unrest in the changing room.

"No, I think they showed real true solidarity amongst themselves, I think the captain showed exactly what the players feel," Moyes said.

"I think there is a real building spirit here, so, look I think what happens is football players move on at any club and things change at every club.

"I can go and tell you what it felt like when I lost Wayne Rooney at 18, when I was at Everton. Did we feel bad at that time? Yes we did, but we were building a team that finished in Europe the majority of seasons after that.

"Football moves on, whether it be the manager of the players. I’ve got to say, the players since we’ve come back have been in great spirit. But that’s partly due to the way they finished the season after lockdown."

That bright end to the season, losing just one of their final seven games, had many at the club confident for Moyes's first full campaign at the club - the Scot finally given the chance to build on keeping them up having done so in 2018 before being replaced by Manuel Pellegrini.

Starting from the off, Moyes is aiming much higher than last season's 16th place finish.

Asked if he'd set a target for the new season, Moyes said: "I have, yes. The players know where I want to be and I'm telling you it is a lot better than where we were last year.

"But we're also going to know we're going to do things sensibly and understand that making steps. We made a big step in staying up because of the position we were in which wasn't good.

"We're aiming to try and do as well as we can. So the players are aware of that."