Sullivan out!

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

[El Scorchio]

Daniel Storey writing on the iPaper about West Ham:

"Managerial lurches, a leadership mess, failed transfers on repeat - how do you solve a problem like West Ham?

Seven years on, what has really changed at West Ham? There is a new minority investor, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. But David Sullivan and Karren Brady are still there and David Gold’s 25.1 per cent ownership continues through his family trust.

West Ham hadn’t won a trophy for 38 years and hadn’t finished in the top six of the top flight for almost 20. And then West Ham did finish in the top six. And then West Ham did win a European trophy. And it ultimately meant far too little outside the joyous context of those fleeting days and nights because, before long, their club proved themselves incapable of escaping their own self-inflicted destiny.

What makes West Ham different is that this drift – which we would usually associate with passivity – combines with an eternal sense of panic. There always seems to be an emergency here, either happening or just around the corner, that leaves people at the end of their tether.

It is the repetition of this combination that causes the disengagement, because it is exhausting to be a West Ham supporter. You spend half your time wondering whether answers have been found and the other half working out who to blame for finding the wrong answers or for ignoring the questions completely. Every year becomes year zero.

Nobody on the outside can really work out who is in charge. Is it Sullivan or Kretinsky, or does Gold’s estate still hold some sway? How much influence does Brady have? If sporting director Tim Steidten is now the guiltiest party, no longer appearing at the training ground, who allowed him to make all the calls and who appointed him? He was the future not long ago.

To that we must still add the London Stadium. It is now eight-and-half years since West Ham played their first match here and, sorry, it doesn’t feel like a home. That’s as much to do with what Upton Park had that this bowl lacks: tight stands, a proximity to the players, an intense atmosphere, a sense of heritage and tradition, a deep connection to a local identity.

I don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. You don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. West Ham don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. I’m not even convinced that they know what he is: team builder, fire fighter, project manager or just the best coach who would sign up for whatever this requires?

At football clubs in rude health, the adage is that the system defines the manager; if the manager leaves the system stays true. At West Ham, the managers lurch – Allardyce to Bilic to Moyes to Pellegrini to Moyes to Lopetegui to Potter – because the system itself has no obvious blueprint or tangibility. Instead, a football club with vast opportunity chases its own tail and desperately rushes to stop everything tumbling into a black hole. It’s no way to live"

 

 

I read this the other day. it's half good, true and insightful and half sly digs and tenuous patronising twoddle.
Don;t know whether RR has edited this himself but the version I read had some more stuff in it. For instance a remark about that Burnley game noting 'The directors’ box was almost breached by an angry mob, some of whom were wearing flat caps' 
What the fuck has their headwear got to do with it?

This quote is absolutely pointless 'It is a Tuesday and I am sat in a mostly empty London Stadium an hour before kick-off'.  Show me any stadium that's even half full an hour before kick off.

How does a Nottingham forest fan claim to know what it feels like (it's exhausting) being a West Ham supporter?

There are some little truth bombs, but a lot of it comes across as sneery and patronising and looking down at not the manager or the owner, but the club and it's fans as a whole. Like a snidey Vice article poking fun at a group of people from their ivory tower of smugness.

Full version here: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/west ... ub-3490446

[Lee Trundle]

It's pretty incredible Sullivan makes the same mistakes over and over and over again without learning his lesson.

How the fuck he's a billionaire, I'll never know.

He's a very successful individual.

He's fluked it looking at the way he's ran us.  He must have made some lucky choices at the right time.

[Mad Ferret]

It's pretty incredible Sullivan makes the same mistakes over and over and over again without learning his lesson.

How the fuck he's a billionaire, I'll never know.

He's a very successful individual.

[RootsRadical]

Daniel Storey writing on the iPaper about West Ham:

"Managerial lurches, a leadership mess, failed transfers on repeat - how do you solve a problem like West Ham?

Seven years on, what has really changed at West Ham? There is a new minority investor, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. But David Sullivan and Karren Brady are still there and David Gold’s 25.1 per cent ownership continues through his family trust.

West Ham hadn’t won a trophy for 38 years and hadn’t finished in the top six of the top flight for almost 20. And then West Ham did finish in the top six. And then West Ham did win a European trophy. And it ultimately meant far too little outside the joyous context of those fleeting days and nights because, before long, their club proved themselves incapable of escaping their own self-inflicted destiny.

What makes West Ham different is that this drift – which we would usually associate with passivity – combines with an eternal sense of panic. There always seems to be an emergency here, either happening or just around the corner, that leaves people at the end of their tether.

It is the repetition of this combination that causes the disengagement, because it is exhausting to be a West Ham supporter. You spend half your time wondering whether answers have been found and the other half working out who to blame for finding the wrong answers or for ignoring the questions completely. Every year becomes year zero.

Nobody on the outside can really work out who is in charge. Is it Sullivan or Kretinsky, or does Gold’s estate still hold some sway? How much influence does Brady have? If sporting director Tim Steidten is now the guiltiest party, no longer appearing at the training ground, who allowed him to make all the calls and who appointed him? He was the future not long ago.

To that we must still add the London Stadium. It is now eight-and-half years since West Ham played their first match here and, sorry, it doesn’t feel like a home. That’s as much to do with what Upton Park had that this bowl lacks: tight stands, a proximity to the players, an intense atmosphere, a sense of heritage and tradition, a deep connection to a local identity.

I don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. You don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. West Ham don’t know if Potter is the answer to any or all of this. I’m not even convinced that they know what he is: team builder, fire fighter, project manager or just the best coach who would sign up for whatever this requires?

At football clubs in rude health, the adage is that the system defines the manager; if the manager leaves the system stays true. At West Ham, the managers lurch – Allardyce to Bilic to Moyes to Pellegrini to Moyes to Lopetegui to Potter – because the system itself has no obvious blueprint or tangibility. Instead, a football club with vast opportunity chases its own tail and desperately rushes to stop everything tumbling into a black hole. It’s no way to live"

[Lee Trundle]

It's pretty incredible Sullivan makes the same mistakes over and over and over again without learning his lesson.

How the fuck he's a billionaire, I'll never know.

[El Scorchio]

Horror reading isn't it. Actually a comparison with some other clubs would be really interesting. In terms of raw numbers it might be a net defecit for several, but you do of course have to factor in what the player did for the club while they were there so it adds more complexity. For instance if Man City let Haaland go on a free in 10 years they'll have made a 'loss' on him but fucking hell will he have been worth it in terms of his play. You can't really say that for any of our top 15 aside from possibly 3-4 of them (time will tell) Whereas Casemiro let's say for Man U will be a disaster even if he stays until the end of his career and they get 6-8 years.

Man U will be up there as one of the worst. Probably cannot compare us to Chelsea, Man U/C Liverpool or Arsenal, I guess some good comparisons for us would be Villa, Newcastle, Everton, Spurs etc. It would be utterly humiliating looking at Brighton or Brentford.

 

[Gank]

Wow, that’s quite a list. I don’t know if it’s surprising or not. I wonder how it shapes up against other clubs?

[El Scorchio]

Yup- sadly not even Rio, although let;s be honest he would have gone for well over 25mill today.

BUT this is more a damning of our transfer activity in the last 10 years or so when prices have skyrocketed from the Rio times. We've bought plenty of players for over that amount. Two of our top five, we've lost a fortune on (Haller and Scamacca) We will not get anything back for Kilman. The other two we should at least turn a profit from (Kudus and Paqueta- although I doubt all that much particularly in Paqueta's case)

6-10 are Alvarez, Felipe Anderson, Zouma, Aguerd and Ward Prowse. No chance of making a bean on any of them still under contract and Anderson was a disaster. Just to add some spice, the next 5 are Vlasic, Summerville, Fornals, Fullkrug and Diop. All sold or will be sold for substantially less than we bought them for, barring Summerville, you would think.

What a fucking list of disaster that reads.All under the stewardship of our dear leader. Half of them wee only at the club a season or two. And if you're being honest, only Paqueta and Kudus have done anything like justify their transfer fees. Fornals was here for ages but was he worth 28 million in the end? Probably not. And sold at a loss as per. Average age of the top 15- 25.5 y/o just for reference

Fucking depressing. And you could write an essay on it.

[Mad Ferret]

Even then it was nowhere near £40m.

You're way off the mark.

[Gank]

Oh yeah, you’re right, then went to Manchester United for the big money.

[MaryMillingtonsGhost]

Didn’t Rio Ferdinand go to Leeds for £40million?

18 mill, iirc.

[Gank]

Didn’t Rio Ferdinand go to Leeds for £40million?

[El Scorchio]

Also read the other day we've only sold one player in our whole history for over 25 million quid. (Rice, of course) Given our outlay on players that's pretty shocking. Really proves the short sighted nature of our dealings and complete lack of thought to a bigger picture or anything past the next 18 months. We've had ample opportunity to course correct under Sullivan and turned away from it at every opportunity.

Deeply ironic that Newman was allegedly told to do one by Sullivan when presenting his plan to try and grab more prospective Rices from grade 2 and 3 academies.

[Sir Alf]

Len perfectly captures the latest sign of “The Sullivan Effect”.  

[Fauxstralian]

Bournemouth, Brighton & Brentford… all much better clubs run in a professional manner
If the cancer that is Sullivan owned any of them they’d be playing non league
Nothing good is happening until he and the slag Brady are run out of the club.

[Russ of the BML]

Football Focus did an article on Brentford on Saturday. Lineker interviewed Frank, they did some stuff on their community projects and ended with interviewing their director of football. The thing that I most gained from it was professionalism and unity. Two things that are totally missing at West Ham right now. Sullivan is the antithesis. We need to get him out. 

[Mike Oxsaw]

"The chasm between us is best evidenced by the fact that when they were clearing out the shit, they got rid of Ings whereas we picked him up"

They must have been laughing all the way to the bank on that one. This is just another one of the few pathetic over priced panic buy underwhelming signings we have made in recent times.

The Miniature Make-believe Muscovite must have thought that he'd snapped up a real bargain in that deal...

[nychammer]

"The chasm between us is best evidenced by the fact that when they were clearing out the shit, they got rid of Ings whereas we picked him up"

They must have been laughing all the way to the bank on that one. This is just another one of the few pathetic over priced panic buy underwhelming signings we have made in recent times.

[ragingbull]

Unequivocally.

[onsideman]

Yeah, i mean look at teams like Villa. Few seasons back we were finishing above them and comfortably better. Now they are CL contenders and we are lower mid table. Did they spend more than us?  Don't think so. The difference is ho they are run. The right coaching appointments, going all out for the right signings instead of making obviously poor signings on foreign misfits and crocks. Signing Watkins instead of Benhrama.  Same with any successful club. 

Unser Sullivan we are a mess. We will have some good times here and there but we are destined to always end up in the place we are in, and this time we've spent a LOT of money to get there. 

Wont change until he packs it in and sells up. 

Villa have only been back in the Premier League for 5 years and they were fighting relegation under Dean Smith and then Gerrard. Emery was appointed less than two and  a half years ago and Monchi hasn't even been there two years yet... so it just goes to show the impact of the right appointments.

The chasm between us is best evidenced by the fact that when they were clearing out the shit, they got rid of Ings whereas we picked him up

[simons]

A woefully run football club. As others have said before, it beggars belief that this cսnt has amassed so much money, given his failings with players and managers. Then again, he got an athletics stadium for peanuts, so I guess we’re the real mugs for putting up with this shit.

The love island wannabe cսnt son will get control when he goes, so no end to this nightmare anytime soon.

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

The state of the club is actually shocking.

I’m struggling to see more than 8 players in our squad that are worth keeping. For the money we have spent and the wage bill we have, we are in a sorry state long term. 

The transition from Moyes should have been a great prospect, but instead this idiot appoints Lopetegui and spends 150m to cement the club to the bottom half.

We have four players out on loan that we invested £110m in. 

There is little about the club to identify with anymore, and for the amount of time he has been here, there has never been a clear direction or football ethos. It beggars belief how he could be happy with his own chairmanship.


 

[Mike Oxsaw]

He's got what/all he wants - continuous membership of Brand PL.

He can plan with that knowing exactly what the club will receive every year for finishing (at least) 17th.

Any higher, or any profits made from player trading is additional bunce in his sky, and with the "right" players, additional folding for his mates.

Why should he change/go?

[goose]

Totally agree - another failed appointment looms!

I’m not sure if I’d prefer Sullivan to die first or you.
maybe you could give him your AIDS?

[Massive Attack]

Always and forever. The cunts got to go