Board/Fan Relationship

OldCastleSwift

*sigh*

Another embarrassment in the public domain.

baracks_a_hammer

I would have thought that snodgrass would have been a solid performer for us next season should we get relegated, but it seems as though that notion is well and truly up in smoke

Nice one sully, very well done

Hamstew

The guy is poison

Cuz1

Couldn’t lie straight in bed the man is vermin makes a mockery of our club

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Year after year they’ve done stuff like this, I don’t see any other clubs owners doing this, absolute shambles

In the article he says that the move is only worth £10m a year and doesn’t really change much, but when it came to selling the fans the dream of next level it was going to help bridge the Gap......

claretandbluesky

It doesn't even matter to me whether he is right about Snodgrass or not I just crave some professionalism from the guy at the top, utter embarrassment to the club.

IronHerb

He's right about Snodgrass, Championship at best.

Cuz1

IronHerb said:

He's right about Snodgrass, Championship at best.

Agreed but then spends millions on him for the premiership

OldCastleSwift

IronHerb said:

He's right about Snodgrass, Championship at best.

Whether he's right or not is irrelevant.

Don’t go public with it. It's so unprofessional and downright disrespectful. These players are still on the books, for crying out loud.

Vorselaarhammer

So many ;hmm ;doh from that article don’t know where to start...

does he has some pathological instinct to put his foot in his mouth...

He makes it really hard to support and trust him.

whupathman

So starting the people popular front of west ham, the rest are splitters. They are not the messiahs, they are just naughty boys

Bazshuayi

In the past, whatever the division we were in, I was a total die hard fan and my love for West Ham was unquestionable.

I'm not reminiscing about 'the old days' as plenty of things weren't right, especially with the people running the club. However, I do remember many fans liking West Ham as a club despite not actually supporting us.

Nowadays, I have to admit that there's a chunk of me that really doesn't like the club. I dont really care whether other teams fans seem to really dislike West Ham now but I can understand why...

I can tell my reactions to us letting in a goal, losing and even winning that there's a feeling that West Ham are tainted. I havent enjoyed watching us play in ages. I don't like the fact that I enjoy watching other teams play more than us. Despite being initially grateful for Gold and Sullivan, I now cringe even before reading articles, tweets etc that are either by them or about them.

If the move was only worth 10M a year and wouldn't make much difference, would there be any way that the board could persuade the fans to move from Upton Park? Not without lying anyway I'd guess. I am sure the discontentment is for several reasons (not just the move, the boards media presence etc) and applies to fans in different ways.

For me though, I dont know if its just a period of time (extended period) where I am down about us or whether its like a long term relationship that after many, many years has little in it to keep it together.

I do know that I value this site/community more than the actual club at the moment. I'd like to feel more love for West Ham and I don't know how that's going to happen

;puzzled

OldCastleSwift

Well said Baz. Echoes how I feel at the moment.

I think as a club we're now somewhat lost; caught between what we were and what the board want us to be. The problem being that we will never again be what we were and nor do I think will we ever become what the owners desire.

We're in football purgatory; and I think we'll be stuck in it for as long as we have the Sullivan/Gold/Brady triumvirate at the helm. For fear of repeating myself, and despite what may actually be their best intentions, I don't believe they have either the money nor the professional competence to take us to the 'next level'.

claretandbluesky

I think we all recognise that the clubs transcends temporary boards but it really helps when you feel an affinity with the board and the manager, and this board are really difficult to like. They certainly didn't sell the move with the statement that it would bring in an extra 10m a year and not make much difference.

I still don't really believe they are just in it for the money, but I do really believe they are not very good at running a football club and should recognise their own limitations a little and seek outside help to perform the role they currently perform. This is unlikely to happen as you can see from the interview when he imagines the boys who are barely out of school taking over, I could see it happening regardless of the boys aptitude for it. They could run West Ham just because their dad bought it, and that is a recipe for disaster.

Cuz1

OCS I agree they talk the talk but not the walk I’m embarrassed by there actions and running a pub get most of the newspapers and cringed when I read Brady’s diary and her Saturday and Sunday column of one rag, I feel the whole pub laughs at us and what they have done to our club, for god sake they employed Mcleish enough said

Bazshuayi

today against Chelsea and last week with Man City showed plenty of effort and industry. Credit where its due. Cant expect us to go toe to toe with these teams so best we can expect is to put max effort in. We got the early goal and defended stoutly. City can break anyone down but Chelsea arent at their level of penetration and pressure thankfully!

A step on the right direction for the WHU LTR and a big relief to go from 10 to 13pts unexpectedly

Pengeman

Oh why oh why does Sullivan have to make public derogatory remarks about West Ham players. Why is he so desperate to get media headlines? something psychologically wrong with the man. His comments disrupt players commitment and focus, they digress from the task in hand. they don't make any economic sense either. After all, one day West Ham would want to sell Fonte and Snodgrass and the chairman's negative comments would hardly help in getting a good price. If due to injuries the maligned players are drafted into the team would they give everything for a chairman who can't button it. It is hard to think of any other EPL chairman who likes so much media limelight and often engineers it with negative and silly comments and leaves the manager, who has to work with the same players everyday, in a difficult position. For the sake of WHU, Mr. Sullivan please stop it or sell your shares and make room for someone else.

IronHerb

Any player who doesn't want to perform, for whatever reason, shouldn't be at the club full stop.

MrsGrey

I imagine the players don't see their loyalty to the Chairman or Board, but rather to their team-mates and (depending on circs) the manager. I suspect the Board are largely irrelevant (in the minds of the players).

SuzanneClaret

Regardless, the chairman and his loose tounge is, in my opinion, doing more harm than good.

All he is doing is waving his ego about in public.

It’s unprofessional.

Yeoldhammer

relevant enough for Snodgrass to tweet about it and comment though. (if that is his account).

Seems a bit daft to pass comment on players currently contracted to the club, surely you do that after they are gone or ideally not at all.

SuzanneClaret

or he could just try shutting up.

IronHerb

That's the same Snodgrass who slagged us off when joining Villa on loan I guess? ;doh

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

That's the same Snodgrass who slagged us off when joining Villa on loan I guess? ;doh

Did Snodgrass slag us off? I thought he said he'd been played out of position by Bilic which was true.

Or does that count as slagging us off?

grey_til_I_dye

ASLEF

He said he had always been played on the right, which wasn't true at all.

Vorselaarhammer

Fonte on Sullivan's comments: "It's ignorance. I'm not going to say anything. It’s not going to change who I am. It's not going to change what I do. I’m going to keep being the good professional that I am."

SuzanneClaret

I thought Fonte was good in the Sky studio on Saturday.

ASLEFshrugged

grey_til_I_dye said:

ASLEF

He said he had always been played on the right, which wasn't true at all.

Snodgrass said he played on the right or "in the hole" and that was indeed where he'd played for Hull last season. He'd played on the left about a dozen times in six seasons before he joined us so obviously that's not his natural position

I still don't see how that is slagging off the club, more like slagging off a manager who has since been sacked

IronHerb

He's contracted to West Ham so therefore shouldn't criticise, hope that more to your liking ASLEF, them. If he can't handle Sullivan saying his kids begged him not to sign him then he needs to toughen up. Another good reason to out him at the earliest opportunity.

Yeoldhammer

His kids shouldn't be in a position to affect transfers in the first place though. That's what you employ a manager for.