If West Ham have learnt anything from last season, it is not to sack manager David Moyes in the midst of a European run.

The Hammers agonised over whether to dismiss Moyes for long periods of last term as they floundered near the foot of the Premier League table, but their Uefa Conference League triumph — the club’s first major trophy in more than 40 years — justified sticking with the Scot.

With the Europa League resuming next month, and West Ham seeded for the round of 16, Moyes should be safe from the chop but Sunday’s 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Arsenal has brought his future back into sharp focus.

The Hammers have reportedly put contract talks with the manager on hold in the wake of their joint-heaviest home defeat in history, during which supporters left the London Stadium en masse long before the final whistle.

Speaking to West Ham fans since, many are conflicted. They all know Moyes has done a remarkable job in east London, taking the Hammers from a relegation dogfight in December 2019 to European glory in June.

It is rarely a good sign when managers start telling fans they have never had it so good, as Moyes effectively did after Sunday’s defeat, but plainly he is right.

His second spell in charge has produced some heady days for supporters more used to yo-yoing between the tiers or mid-table finishes in the top flight.

Fans are frustrated too, however; at Moyes’s stubbornness, his counter-punching tactics, his seemingly unwavering faith in certain players. Some wonder if he has taken the club as far as he can, while others believe they should all remember which side their bread is buttered on.

Really, this gets to the crux of the issue for West Ham: can they actually dare to dream bigger than their most successful manager of the modern era?

Moyes did an excellent job at Everton and, if Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to anoint his compatriot as his successor at Manchester United was a questionable act of nepotism, it was not Moyes’s fault.

He appeared out of his depth at United but history has suggested the club were as much the problem as Moyes, while his one undeniable failure in the Premier League, Sunderland’s wretched rock-bottom finish in 2016-17, also appears to be in large part the result of a dysfunctional environment.

Since his chastening experience at Old Trafford, Moyes has done the right things. He expanded his horizons by working in Spain at Real Sociedad and has modernised his methods, changing the way he communicates with his players and using spells out of the game to study the top club and international sides.

After being written off in so many quarters, he deserved his crowning moment in Prague in the summer.

The bottom line, though, is that while Moyes is as close as you can come to a guaranteed level of performance in the Premier League, he has a ceiling.

His average points-per-game from his 14 full campaigns in charge of Everton and West Ham (minus his spells at Sunderland and United) stands at 1.48 PPG — or 56 points a season.

If West Ham’s excellent ‘20-21 campaign was an overachievement with 65 points and last term was an underachievement with 40, the Hammers made par in 2021-22 with exactly 56 points and are tracking to finish with 57 this year — which would make this another quintessentially Moyesian season.

There will be highs, such as the 2-0 win at Arsenal in December, and lows like last weekend, but with Moyes in charge it will typically all come out in the wash.

When he was at Everton, 56 points effectively guaranteed a top-seven finish but today, in the era of the so-called “big six” (and with two compelling outsiders in Aston Villa and Newcastle), it will only very occasionally be enough.

History therefore suggests West Ham should remain in upper-midtable while Moyes is at the helm but are unlikely to gatecrash the top-six.

It is only natural for fans to dream, especially when the football is defensive and they have had a taste of winning silverware and flirted with challenging for the Champions League.

Plainly, Moyes is a classic victim of his own success in raising expectations but, while fans are understandably conflicted, the club has a decision to make.

Do they stick with their 56-point man for the foreseeable future or roll the dice in search of a higher number?