Has Sullivan Been Slapped Down By Gold?

What the bloody hell is going on in Diddy David's head? His retraction today, following yesterday's ill advised remarks, sounds like the confused bumblings of a madman. In one breath he says he was out of order, "I can see Zola's counter argument that these issues are best not brought to light so close to a game, and yes he has a point, so I am not upset for him expressing it"; and in the next he claims his salary cut comments were a masterstroke of motivation, designed to "galvanise" the team and improve results, "I hope it bonds the team and the manager closer together, so they go out and say they are going to show everybody what they can do, what they are made of".

Has Gold perhaps had a word in his shell like and told him he is not the only David running the show? Sullivan sounds like a man who has had a flea in his ear as he protests, "People at West Ham have got to face reality. West Ham have won four of their last 24 games, so who can blame me for wanting to take a strong stance if that ends up motivating people?"

Just how threatening a 25% wage cut is meant to be a way of "galvanising" a team is beyond me! Lining up your players and kicking them in the bollocks just before the kick off seems to be in the same ball park to me!

And then Sullivan admits that the threatened wage cut is impossible anyway, saying, "As for reality, you cannot impose a 25% cut in players' wages, you cannot cut their wages at all. They have contracts, so it cannot happen, you simply cannot enforce it however much you would like to." I made this point yesterday so maybe David is reading this blog!

It is all very odd. My guess is that Zola went to Gold and told him that there was a player revolt in the offing and Gold then slapped Sullivan down for his stupid remarks. It seems typical of the man that even in his retraction and apology, he is still trying to claim credit for himself. In his mind, he is probably now putting the victory tonight down to his comments!

Just listen to the arrogance of his closing remarks! "But I have become an optimist. I believe we will stay up. But it won't be easy beating Birmingham. They come with an impressive record of only one loss in 18, against a team with four wins in 24. Let's see if I have helped motivate the team and the manager."

Apology and retraction? What apology and retraction?