Transfer Director Tony Henry (suspended) dismissed by club

Hammerdublin

This bigot harmed the club immensely. I can only imagine how many great players we refused to consider because of his 'policy' - Africans, Russians, Italians. ;doh Anyway, he has been sacked, and deservedly so.

thornburyiron

Another senior official at the club has also been suspended but not yet named by the club.

thornburyiron

Palace academy director suspended over inappropriate behaviour with the under 18s. May deflect some of the news away from us.

grey_til_I_dye

I certainly suspect Henry was more guilty of stupidity than malice, but it was clearly inexcusable and so he had to go.

alderz

The fact that his justification in the interview was to suggest it was ok to make a sweeping generalisation about Africans was to then make sweeping generalisations about Russians and Italians was a clue to his stupidity, imo.

MrsGrey

billybondsbeard said:

Its probably a bit more prosaic than that I reckon. I bet there has been an internal conversation along the lines of "we dont want any more like that idiot Sakho" -

Probably.

Henry could have then more accurately have said there was a club policy against signing idiots, or troublemakers, or players who weren't 'team players' or players with questionable attitudes, or who had a track record of sulking.....

but he didn't.

Probably (and we're back to his personal views again) he said we don't want any more Africans. Which makes as much sense as saying we don't want any more forwards/people with surnames starting with S/people with brown eyes.

thornburyiron

Sakho's gone on record saying that West Ham are trying to get rid of all their black players and none of the black players want to play for them.

MrsGrey

I wasn't suggesting you were (condoning it) on account of ... I read that you weren't condoing it..

I didn't include the other bit of your quote because my comment didn't address that bit.

I was agreeing with the first part of what you said, and adding to it.

I think you have misunderstood my point.

MrsGrey

thorn, laughing at Sakho, not you.

OutcastLondoner

MrsGrey said:

Bit more detail I've just read here https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/02/david-moyes-west-ham-african-players


Henry, who had worked for the club since 2014, is reported to have sent an email to an agent and a club executive asking them not to recommend any more African players.

That’s probably how we’re going to find out how far this spread, through their interactions with those outside the club.

For the record, it’s not unusual for a racist to employ the people he’s biased against, not is it unusual for them to pick out a few expceptions they think are ‘not like the rest.’

alderz

thornburyiron said:

Sakho's gone on record saying that West Ham are trying to get rid of all their black players and none of the black players want to play for them.

I saw this yesterday and my immediate thoughts were:

1. This was said on Snapchat to a fan. Anyone can change the name of anyone else on their Snapchat account. This makes it an extremely unreliable account, at this moment in time.

2. Isn't it interesting that "Sakho" had been messaging this guy last week to tell him he would say why he wanted to leave, and then right after the Tony Henry news broke he happened to mention that? Timing seems very strange.

IronHerb

The Mail knows though.

alderz

Just to illustrate the point, this is an example of a snapchat conversation I have with my friend, and then I changed the name.

Please ignore the content of this conversation it's PERSONAL OK?!

OutcastLondoner

But why are you friends with the Snake?

alderz

Because I am in the know (ITK, for you mere mortals)

secrethammersfan

BubblesNeverDies said:

I'll just leave this out there, but definitely not in Henry's defence.

Tony Henry said (reportedly):
"West Ham do indeed want to limit the number of African players because 'they have a bad attitude' and 'cause mayhem' when they are not in the team."

I still reckon he was just too clumsy with his words. You must admit that when the African Cup of Nations is on, African players do cause mayhem when they’re not in the team.

grey_til_I_dye

IronHerb said:

The Mail knows though.

A first time for everything... ;wink

MrsGrey

shf, he was too stupid to say 'we want to limit the number of players who are going to be absent during ACON because that leaves us a bit short'. ;doh

(Although, thinks;hmm ... isn't ACON moving to he summer - so it won't affect PL players in future?)

thornburyiron

Given that the Henry conversation was with the Mail I'm pretty sure they are in the know and have given the transcript (or recording) of the conversation to West Ham. That's also why I presume the second person, as yet unnamed, has been suspended.

Yeoldhammer

In the full context of the interview. The interviewer presses Henry on questions and he replies with "i dont know what you are getting at" he should have known by this point he had said some very stupid things but still continued none the less despite knowing the intentions of the interviewer.

The interviewer was certainly fishing for it and Henry was stupid enough to more than oblige, i get the feeling Henry is one of those that say "I'm not a racist i have many black friend's" etc but at the same time will throw a label around their necks to try and validate a point.

If he and the club was disgruntled with certain players in the camp over XYZ then he could have just name dropped. Alternatively he doesn't speak to the press what so ever and whatever issues or problems he and the club have with an individual are dealt with internally.

He got baited and got caught hook line and sinker. Glad he's gone.

MrsGrey

thornburyiron said:

Given that the Henry conversation was with the Mail I'm pretty sure they are in the know and have given the transcript (or recording) of the conversation to West Ham.

;ok I read somewhere yesterday that WH did have the transcript. I'll see if I can find where I saw that.

Edit: here https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/02/david-moyes-west-ham-african-players

It is understood the club acted after reading a full transcript of an interview he gave to the newspaper.

Lukerz

It was an interview? I thought it was an email conversation which got leaked to the press?

grey_til_I_dye

Lukerz

I think the Daily Mail contacted Henry for his comments.

MrsGrey

I think that's just the way they are describing it, Luke. The DM reporter phoned him up to talk to him after they had seen the email, and he took the call and answered the questions = interview.

But it wasn't a pre-arranged 'interview' in the sense that the word is sometimes used.

MrsGrey

Too slow ;weep

grey_til_I_dye

Your powers are weak...

secrethammersfan

I have a feeling that there are quite a few people at the club who perhaps would have felt more comfortable in the football world of 30 or 40 years ago. I think this is part of a necessary, and for the club, embarrassing process of elimination of characters who are incapable of functioning in the 21st century social media fishbowl of football.

Moojor

SHF - I think it's more a case of the following:

secrethammersfan said:

I have a feeling that there are quite a few people at the club in football who perhaps would have felt more comfortable in the football world of 30 or 40 years ago.

I think this is part of a necessary, and for the clubfootball culture, embarrassing process of elimination of characters who are incapable of functioning in the 21st century social media fishbowl of football.

Kuchinghammer

Agree with the general feeling that he was stupid saying (and emailing) what he did. But a minor problem for me is that if he used the term "black footballers" he was indeed racist. If he used the term "African footballers" he was being xenophobic, and to hang him on the racist hook is in fact wrong.
I think he should go on the grounds of being stupid and xenophobic, by the way.
Oh, and Marky's comment about "tough" Portugese was complimentary, so not offensive to Portugese nationals (of any colour.) Marky Mark can do no wrong ;wink

alderz

Kuching

But Henry clearly meant black Africans, as he spent deadline day trying to sign Slimani