He continues: "He is a really decent person who deserves our support." Really? So when did he become decent and start deserving that support? It must have been around about the time O'Neill told West Ham where to stick the job offer. Coincidence that.
He adds: "West Ham United is a club that does the right thing and the right thing at this time is to support the manager." At this time? Is that time very precise? At 2pm on January 18th, 2011 West Ham does the right thing and the right thing at 2pm on January 18th, 2011 is to support the manager. Tomorrow? Another day, another time, Allardyce may want the job so who knows?
He states: "We will do all we can to bring in players over the next 12 days and, once we have achieved that, we hope it will keep us up." Well it's a bloody shame Sullivan, Brady & Gold have wasted 18 days of the window and made the club into an absolute laughing stock. Who, in his right mind, would want to sign for Grant and West Ham now? Note that word "hope". That screams confidence doesn't it!
He concludes: "I urge all the supporters to rally behind the club at this difficult time." Well what a fcuking nerve! Rally behind what "club" exactly? I can't see a "club" unless it is a heavy implement Sullivan is using to beat Avram around the head with. The other "club" suggests fellowship and people working together towards a common goal. There is no "club" in that sense left. There is a business, and a badly run business at that, but there is no club.
Fcuk them. I have defended Sullivan and Gold until now but this "difficult time" is of their making. They appointed Avram and within 7 months they are trying to replace him. I have said all along that the guy has to be given time and, for better or worse, he now has that time - although how on earth he asserts any authority after what has happened, I have no idea. If we lose the next 10 games in a row, how can Avram be held accountable? If we go down, how can Grant be blamed? He is literally untouchable!
Sullivan, Gold and Brady haven't just shot themselves in the feet, they have shot off their own bollocks. Which in Brady's case must really have cracked her up!
They must think all us fans are thick. Avram should quit, that'd really throw them in the shit! Karren and the Davids, AKA the cock and bollocks of West Ham United.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree 100% - our team never stood a chance, last season the players are told they are all up for sale, great motivation! We need players so we get King Benni, brilliant!!! (not!) All all the other rubbish that comes from our board.
ReplyDeleteHow do we get a team motivated with those jokers, Grant has been fighting with one arm behind his back all season - he does need time and he needs players, our form of late is good we get chances to score we need a good striker, CB, LB & RB - not a new manager!
The team needs to play for the club and unfortunately this club has begun to represent the three stoogies! And if Brady was sending out texts to the players she should be fired, hell they fired Zola for less!
Yep, they've certainly f**ked BIG STYLE!!!
ReplyDeleteNo decent manager or player will want to come to us now, no matter what money they throw at them. It's now clear that we are heading in one direction... down and into the Championship! Now just to rub salt into the wound, you watch us go and throw away the 2nd leg of the semi-final... :(
Swisshammer .....
ReplyDeletemy god. I am over 700 miles away in Switzerland (not exactly the home of football - my friends didnt even know who Behrami was!!)and am getting ripped by this mess!
What did we ever do as fans to deserve this?? such a shame. Our owners are too late and too little to even begin to fix this.
It would be interesting to see where we would be if Tony Fernandes bought the club. I never really rated our current board but what has happened the last couple of days is just a bloody disgrace. Gold seems to be the only one who actually acts like a board member normally should do.
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the season it would have been a minor miracle for Grant to keep this utterly hopeless mob up, he has hardly been given a fighting chance from the beginning with all the media speculation and board innuendo. It'll now take a miracle of biblical proportions.
ReplyDeleteWe need at least 6 wins and a few draws to stay up, who could we possibly beat in these 15 games? The only real candidates are Birmingham (h), Blackpool (a), WBA (a), Wigan (a), Stoke (h), Villa (h), Blackburn (h) and Sunderland (h) and we wont win 6 from there.
Then there's Everton (a), Bolton (a), Tottenham (a), Chelsea (a), Man City (a), Liverpool (h) and Man Utd (h) and we'll be lucky to get more than a point out of that lot.
We'll have to pull off some major shocks and/or start winning games away from home to have a chance.
The two David's, worth an estimated billion pounds between them have dug deep and bought Harijan Grant a new dust pan and brush, well they are fans aren't they?
ReplyDeleteIn all my life I have never seen a management shambles so utterly compelling, so disheartening, so downright embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteFor the first time ever I will say this: I fervently hope West Ham are relegated this season. It is exactly what the ownership deserve. Anything else will be vindication (in their eyes) for their actions since taking over the club. The Championship is where this crowd are heading and I want the disgusting S&G to know that they are responsible.
Sadly Zito, I am minded to agree with you.
ReplyDeleteApart from the bollocks about poor old Avram and if he loses 10 in a row, he's still untouchable, you have captured the mood against SuGoBra superbly.
ReplyDeleteI have never, ever, felt at a lower ebb. Not even after losing to Palarse at Cardiff in 2004.
That lady in the caption has a better technique than Obinna. Is that Karren in the background giving coaching lessons?
ReplyDeleteStrange statement on the OS today. HMS West Ham sounds like a very unhappy ship at the moment and we all go down with them.
I'm pretty sure taking West Ham into the championship has been the plan all along. I suspect they are hoping the drop on status will drop the price of the remaining shares, which they will buy, or have someone else lined up to do so. Meanwhile they make a laughing stock of the fans... I'm embarrassed to say I'm a West Ham fan after all this & I live in Canada, where football is played by men with odd shaped balls & lots of padding!
ReplyDeleteBut he is untouchable mate. How can they sack him now? The latest statement is like the "We will not sell Parker statement". They have backed themselves into a corner. I'm interested to see how the Brady situation pans out! But like you, I can't remember being closer to falling out of love with West Ham Disunited.
ReplyDeleteDavid Sullivan
ReplyDeleteThe power behind West Ham is co-chairman David Sullivan, a pornographer with a penchant for Sgt. Pepper-style military overcoats. The multi-millionaire, whose estimated fortune is £600m and is known for “sex and soccer”, began his career at Gerald Ronson's petrol stations. According to the Sunday Times he controlled half of the adult magazine market by the mid-1970s.
Despite being a life-long West Ham supporter, Sullivan bought Birmingham City, which was in administration, in 1993 with business partners David and Ralph Gold. They sold the club to Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung in winter 2009 for £81.5 million.
The 61 year-old, who graduated in Economics from Queen Mary College, University of London, has come into contact with police on more than one occasion. He was convicted for living off immoral earnings and, later arrested by the City of London Police amid a corruption investigation into allegations of fraud in football.
He and Gold acquired 50 percent of West Ham in January last year, giving them operational and commercial control.
David Gold
The sign hanging over the entrance to David Gold’s Surrey mansion which warns guests to beware of gunfire gives a revealing insight into this charismatic 74 year-old multi-millionaire with a fondness for flying helicopters. He made his fortune in the pornographic industry alongside Sullivan, and is now co-chairman of West Ham.
Gold, whose daughter Jacqueline is chief executive of Ann Summers, launched the downmarket Sunday Sport newspaper in 1986 with brother Ralph and business partner Sullivan, but his passion is for football. A member of the FA Council, Gold spent half a million on the oldest existing FA Cup, which is now kept in his drawing room, to prevent it being bought by overseas buyers. He originally moved into football as a shareholder at West Ham, but bought Birmingham City with Sullivan in 1993.
Gold, a West Ham supporter since childhood, recently admitted that they “literally didn’t know what we were doing” when they moved to St Andrew's, but he prides himself on having only sacked one manager, Barry Fry. He is Avram Grant’s chief supporter on the board, and has lobbied repeatedly on behalf of the Israeli.
Karren Brady
West Ham’s managing director Karren Brady might now be best known for appearing at Sir Alan Sugar’s side on the BBC’s The Apprentice, but the businesswoman was responsible for persuading Sullivan to purchase Birmingham City. Sullivan appointed her managing director, making her the first woman on the board of a football league club. She was just 23 at the time.
The 41 year-old, married to Paul Peschisolido, the Burton Albion manager, began her career at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, where she did work for Sullivan before becoming a director of his company at the age of 20. In 2008 she was arrested along with Sullivan as part of the City of London police’s investigation into corruption in football. It was confirmed in August last year that no action would be taken.
It is not the only time she has courted controversy in football. Her column for The Sun newspaper damaged her relationship with Birmingham manager Alex McLeish after she mocked his recruitment policy. After being appointed to the board of West Ham last January, she used the column to plege that “we will hang in the Tower of London” before West Ham suffer financial problems again. Drove the attempt to recruit Martin O’Neill.
Still think we got the right owners HF? Did I not call these scoundrels? What perverse reason do you have for me being right this time? :)
ReplyDeletePerhaps Avram is a very clever man and sent the emails and started the O'Neil rumour himself! If so, we must stand a chance of staying up with such a brilliant manager!
ReplyDeleteStani, I have never suggested that Sullivan & Gold are saints. I was very wary in the early days - check back - and have never said that I trust them, especially in relation to the sale of the Stadium. I have had Barratt helicopters circling the stadium in a number of threads! However, I have also recognised that they inherited a mess and may well have saved the club from administration. Unlike you, I believe they made the right decision to sack Zola, in fact I believe they made a mistake by allowing him to stay on until the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to them, the predicted "fire sale" of assets has not happened. You expected Parker to be sold, as did I. But he hasn't been. True they haven't shelled out millions to bring players in, but they took on a club over £100million in debt and with a crippling wage bill. In the circumstances, I'm amazed that they acceeded to Zola's "demand" to sign McCarthy on stupid wages and to the absurd signing of Bridge on loan given what he is paid. They have put their money where their mouths are in that sense.
You can't really criticise them over the Grant business because you have been knifing him in the back ever since he arrived. The whoole business was handled appallingly BECAUSE O'Neill was the wrong man to recruit. He was never going to be able to work with Sullivan and Brady and, in a way, it was better that was established BEFORE he joined rather than in two weeks time, leaving us without a manager. The appointment was misguided with a capital M and O'Neill was an idiot to even consider it. He had second thoughts and walked away, as I predicted!
So, I don't trust the owners but I recognise that they are a necessary evil at the moment. I am not convinced about Grant, but I don't think it is fair to condemn him given what he inherited from Zola. We have got one foot at Wembley and not many West Ham managers have achieved a Cup Final appearance since the club's inception.
"It'll now take a miracle of biblical proportions." - am glad we got Grant then, good job he took that day off for Yom Kippur!
ReplyDeleteYou forgot the new apparent 'spokesman' for WHU, Mr Barry SILKMAN, another lovely piece of work. Check out his WIKIPEDIA page, very uplifting reading....he's sure to find us some 'marquee' signings, I'm sure. You couldn't make this stuff up, for sure. Look up descration in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Sullivan/Gold/ Brady/Silkman. If anyone had any doubts that WHU has changed from what it used to be, into tthe COMPLETE & TOTAL opposite of everything it once stood for [Greenwood/Lyall and the legendary 60s > mid 80s, then they are the proof. ANYONE - Duxbury, the Icelandics, that Italian nutter - would have been a better owner than this dodgy crew. And it's all been planned I think, solely for £££, nothing else drives them.
ReplyDeletegateman
Administration Gateman? Because that's what we were facing. Relegation, points deductions, bankruptcy...
ReplyDelete...said Gold and Sullivan HF
ReplyDeleteIndeed HF. However distasteful this regime may be, administration was the alternative.
ReplyDeleteBeggars cannot be choosers.
Well, at this point I think Administration would have been preferable to letting this lot 'own' the club. But it was never shown definitively that the club would have gone into administration anyway. That was what Gold & Sullivan's camp TOLD us was going to happen. What a pity that no-one else could raise the money to buy the club. No point crying over spilt milk though - much worse is to come with this lot, I'm sure.
ReplyDeletegateman