Thank God 2009 is behind us, on a national level and on a club level - everything has gone wrong that could go wrong, save of course for England qualifying easily for the World Cup and doing rather well in the Ashes and now, surprisingly, in South Africa. England winning in South Africa! Let's hope that becomes a habit!
But what hope is there at West Ham? Well rumours are rife that one of the deals being proposed may yet be accepted. Sullivan and Gold look to be out of the running but I wouldn't dismiss their chances of "joint ownership" yet, unless C&B Holdings opt for the asset stripping option.
The Intermarket Group look well dodgy to me. Look up their site on the internet, it looks like something Rodders might have put together for Del Boy. If you thought the two Davids were small fry in the business world, then don't get your hopes up that Intermarket are a mystery Goliath! I hope I am wrong but I think this is a publicity stunt still.
Then there is Tony Fernandes. Maybe, just maybe, he is the man to save us and take us forward. As the owner of an airline company, he will at least understand that you can't sell your fleet and still hope to make money. Should Fernandes buy us outright or take a stake, I can't see the likes of Upson leaving UNLESS it makes genuine football sense.
But if nobody buys us, what then? Well there are, fortunately, some very weak teams in the Prem and if we can hold on to Upson, Parker, Behrami and Cole, and keep them fit, then I think we should have enough to stay up. But survival in the Prem would be on a knife edge and long term injuries to Parker, Upson or Cole could well be the tipping point. Note, I have left Green out of this. On his current form, he is not key to our survival; in fact, in his current form, he is a bit of a liability.
My rabbit out of the hat hope is that Sears returns with a bang. Maybe, just maybe, he could "come again", score a goal on Sunday and then go on a goal scoring run.
An uncertain start to the New Year for sure, but there is a glimmer of hope so let's hold on to it for as long as we can. Here's hoping for a happy new year!
5 comments:
HF, I have a feeling Sears will score on Sunday. I doubt he will start as Zola will either go Nouble and Jimenez or Stan, Diamanti, Jimenez.
I know the cup shouldn't really be any sort of priority but a win here will give us a big boost, even if we go out at a later stage.
I really do hope we see Daprela play as that left back issue is getting as important as the Nouble/Dixon striker one.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not exactly a fan of Straumur/C & B Holdings myself. But why would they want to asset strip at this time? They have a nine month extension on their moratorium which means that they have kept the creditors at bay until September, so they don't need to start asset stripping at the moment. If anything, I would've thought that they would've wanted to keep our best players at the club as to maximize the value of their asset as stripping will only mean the value of the club would be depreciated, especially if we got relegated. I think that this window will be another boring one for us with none coming in and none going out tbh. I also think that once this window closes, the our players will feel a lot more settled and start playing football and we will survive. I don't know where all of this stuff about Intermarket pulling a publicity stunt comes from, if anything they been very discreet, whereas Gold & Sullivan have been anything but, so you could that it is Gold & Sullivan that have pulling a publicity stunt if anybody. I'm not sure who I would want to buy the club, but I never fancied Gold & Sullivan despite them being boyhood West Ham fans as imo, it would be like having Terry Brown back, I don't know why, it's just a feeling I have about those two. Besides, if you think our situation is bad, spare a thought for poor old Pompey sitting miserably at the bottom of the table, who not only can't they afford to pay the players their wages, but also they can't afford to pay their other staff's wages and they now have the taxman after them. So when you look at their situation, it makes ours seem a little bit rosier.
1436, had you heard of Intermarket before their "bid"? How many column inches in national newspapers has this business generated for them? How much would these advertorials have cost across our national press? Bloody effective PR stunt if that is what it is. Mentions on Sky TV and on the radio as well. And if their bid is rejected, a new round of publicity as they condemn Straumur for missing out on an opportunity to save the club. Alternatively, they may see a way of buying it on the cheap and turning it. Either way, I don't see them offering stability and long term financial backing.
Yes Pompey are in a worse mess than us but sadly 3 teams go down, not one! Your cancer is more malignant than mine isn't a great argument in a hospice at the end of the day is it?
Why asset strip? Because if they do not receive a reasonable bid, they can recover a great chunk of the debt by selling players and still sell West Ham as a Fizzy Pop club for the £40m that Sullivan & Gold have offered. Why won't they wait for 9 months to expire? Interest is accruing on the debt every day. Better to clear it sooner rather than later!
I think that you are being a little bit paranoid about asset stripping there fanno. It may happen in the summer window (we'll worry about then) but not in this window. I think that Straumur/C & B Holdings are gambling on our survival in order to maximize on their asset as they would be hoping to sell the club in the summer when it is forecasted for the market to pick up, that's what I think anyway and I also think that it is the press that are making a real meal out of our debts, every club has debts which are budgeted for as it doesn't seem to me that our debts are spiraling out of control as that is what the press would have us all believe, so it's all just paper talk bollocks along with the so called mass exodus that is due this month as far as I'm concerned. Up here for thinking and down there for dancing as they say.
Hope you are right. The next couple of weeks should be very revealing. Remember, Bellamy was going nowhere at the start of last January!
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