The Owners - The Good, The Bad and The ITK.

Clactonite

Hutton,

So Liverpool, Leicester and Man City’s foreign owners had lots of experience running an English football club before they arrived did they?

I’d say it would have more to do with hiring the right people.

Huttonhammer

Clacton

So Sullivan and golds kids will take over and then suddenly employ the right people to take the club forwards and make it a success?

Why don’t they have a little word with their parents now and stop us all waiting?

Clactonite

I have no idea how they would run the club but I’d say with respect, neither do you.

If I ever bump into them I’ll ask.

Huttonhammer

Are you really being serious Clacton.

If they had good ideas why on earth would they not be speaking to their parents to help now?

Would they be that silly that they would be waiting to take over and then go “ I know what to do to turn things round”.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

OldCastleSwift said:

thornburyiron said:

Just seen a discussion on Sunday Supplement about us. Scathing didn’t come anywhere near it. Mentioned that we are considered to be a joke in football circles. The worst training facilities in the PL with a collection of portacabins. One scout for recruitment. Moyes has only one back room member.
All the things we talk about.

And this is why I now believe it's irrelevant who we have as manager. Zola failed. Grant failed. Bilic failed. Pellegrini failed. Moyes is very much on course to fail.

The only manager you could argue actually brought us success in recent history is Allardyce, who is considered to be the most 'anti-West Ham' of the lot.

The problems at this club run much deeper than who coaches the team. The infrastructure is absolutely shot. The training ground is sub-par for a top level PL team. Our recruitment policy is horrific, whereby we don't scout players who will fit the system the manager wants; instead we rely on agents pimping their clients to us.

There can only be one reason for this, and that's the management of the club. Sullivan, Gold and Brady are not fit to run a football club. They have had zero success in 25 years of ownership and have alienated two fan bases. They tried to get Birmingham out of their home and into a council-funded new stadium, but once that failed they walked away. I would wager good money that had they been successful, St Andrews would have sold to the lowest bidder and flats will now be standing where the stadium once did.

Fast forward a few years and they've managed to do just that with West Ham. Fans were convinced that the move was necessary; I was certainly suckered in. But of course if they had said at the time of the bid that they didn't have the money to compete for the top six, that the average net spend since the move would be £31.5m, that we would have one scout, that the training facilities would be worse that some League One clubs, then I wouldn't have backed the move at all. I was deceived. We all were.

So I've now given up on this club until those three are gone. I'm not investing any more of my energy, money or time because they have killed the club for me. When I was growing up, West Ham were a lot of people's second team. We had a wonderful heritage and produced some of the best players the country has ever seen. We played good football, but also knew how to fight and intimidate our opponents. Now we're a laughing stock; a circus. We have no identity, no plan on or off the pitch and everything we do feels to be reactionary.

I hate what we've become and I fear it'll be a long, long time until we're back on the right track. It certainly won't happen under the current ownership IMO, and if the club gets passed down to the Sullivan and Gold children, then there's every chance this will continue for a generation.

Spot on OCS

Circus you say....

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

SuzanneClaret said:

Were do you think C&H has got this from and how accurate is it?


“The latest financial position – as we understand it – is that there will be £40 million required in the summer to keep the club afloat and that will of course be a great deal bigger if we have dropped into the Championship”

They got it directly from the horses mouth, Sully, they speak at least once a week and Sean W has Brady’s mobile number

Clactonite

Again I have no idea Hutton, I’ve never met them. Maybe they share ideas but the owners and board don’t listen.

SuzanneClaret

Hutton / Clacton

I do wonder if you extrapolated what I posted into something else.

I will inherit my parents house but don’t tell them what wallpaper they should choose in the interim.

The fans forum was 6 years ago. Things may have changed.

SuzanneClaret

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard said:

SuzanneClaret said:

Were do you think C&H has got this from and how accurate is it?


“The latest financial position – as we understand it – is that there will be £40 million required in the summer to keep the club afloat and that will of course be a great deal bigger if we have dropped into the Championship”

They got it directly from the horses mouth, Sully, they speak at least once a week and Sean W has Brady’s mobile number

:nonono: :weep:

Huttonhammer

Suzanne

My post was to do with what you had posted.

I see your last comment about the wall paper a little differently.

If you were going to inherit your parents house you wouldn’t let it collapse into ruins before you had the chance to move in .

IronHerb

"Fan pressure on the board is unquestionably having an effect and if a genuine, good buyer came in it now has to be more than likely David Sullivan would listen."

So what does that mean? A genuine, good buyer means different things to different people, and it still doesn't cover price.

Nothing to get excited about imo.

SuzanneClaret

Hutton

You’ve not met my parents

In all seriousness though, I do get your point. They may agree with their dads, they may not. They may be speaking to them about it and not being listened too.

Personally I think it’s a mute point.

IMO we need change now.

alderz

Who’s to say they aren’t saying all those things to their parents and not being listened to?

Trondheimrob

Suz said, "IMO we need change now." Was Suz referring to the wallpaper or the club? Or do both need a change. It may be easier to change Suz's wallpaper than the club.

SuzanneClaret

Trond

In all honesty my parents choice in wallpaper is quite good :biggrin:

I shall not be demanding change during my next visit.

Trondheimrob

Suz. "I shall not be demanding change during my next visit." If only we could say that about our beloved club at the moment.

Expat_Hammer

BubblesNeverDies said:

Hutton, from lingerie to EPL football - that would be some feat.

Maybe we would finally get some cups :yercoat:

Hamstew

Expat_Hammer said:

BubblesNeverDies said:

Hutton, from lingerie to EPL football - that would be some feat.

Maybe we would finally get some cups :yercoat:

So are Gold and Sullivan the double D's?

IronHerb

You're walking a tights line there Ham.

SuzanneClaret

Steady on you lot.

Expat_Hammer

And maybe we could knicker point here and there too

Hamstew

Our anthem might be the problem. Maybe we should sing a more uplifting thong?

PrestonHammer

The Thong Song you say?

ianbishoplegend

They missed the chance not signing a couple of great players in the Jan window last Upton Park season. They have never recovered from that mistake. They obviously don’t trust managers or even them selves for more than a few transfers. Maybe move Moyes into a DOF position to rebuild the club from top to bottom without hinderance.

sweepy23

‘The club needs another £40m injection’ - not buying it.

Is that because of Sully’s interest rate?

Or is it so Sully can do a PR job and state he saved our club for the tenth time?

Adam

£1.8m in interest in 17/18. Previous years were between £2m-£3m a year. You could then take off tax savings when we made profit in each year.

claretandbluesky

It may be over simplifying but I feel there are four types of owner

1. Money no object and you simply have an objective and you throw as much money at it for as long as it takes to achieve it. City & Chelski
2. You expect to spend significant sums but recognise the model must be able to sustain itself, you recognise the club is built from the bottom up, training, stadium etc. Spurs
3. You have or are only prepared to spend affordable sums that don't risk the whole club and try to do the best you can and hope for a little luck for a good cup run or a flirtation with the top 6 but to retain premiership status is always the priority. West Ham and most of the Premiership.
4. You come in and raise fans expectations and make one massive gamble to take the world by storm. In doing so you potentially risk the very existence of the club or at least damage it for years to come. LeedsUtd.

The problem as I see it is we have number 3 but want 2 or even 1.The problem is exasperated by the expectations encouraged within the stadium move that we would be a bit more like number 2. Although we hate them for me Spurs are the model of a well run club.

Were I to offer a view of our owners personally I think none of them have the best judgement but feel Sully likely thinks he does. I do recognise we don't really know who makes which decisions but most of us likely feel Sully carries most power in that respect. I think most of his management choices have been found lacking, It's arguable Pelle was ambitious but I think he was at the end of his career and in China when we got him which doesn't bode well, whilst bringing back the man you didn't want originally to firefight is quite a gamble.

In my view our owners, especially Sully and Brady have been in the football business long enough to question why they have never really delivered upon their own hopes and aspirations. Most at Birmingham never seemed to like them and I think it's likely fair to say with West ham that you either have people like myself that think they have limitations but are not especially malevolent and those who think they are to blame for everything, I doubt many think they are really good owners and we are lucky to have them. With the amount of experience and effort they have made it may be time to recognise football ownership isn't for you.

buffybegood

So, 10 years they've been here, and still we're living hand-to-mouth? Despite having sold our home and moved us to a soul-less bowl completely unsuited to football?

Where's the "next level" they promised us when they moved us to the OS and sold our home? How come we still, 10 years on, need another £40m injection? Even if we do, and they put it in, they'll still charge us interest on it. But the question is surely why we would need it after 10 years of their stewardship. It's purely down to their gross ineptitude.

I'm sick to death of Gold and Sullivan. If they just want to own us as a business investment and for them to play real life Football Manager, then fine, but they really need to shut up and stop pretending they're supporters. If they were, they wouldn't charge interest on loans to the club; the club needs the money way more than they do, and they've already earned a fortune from the sale of the Boleyn and the increase in value of the club following the move to the OS.

I really fail to see how anyone can defend them, they conned many into believing the move was for our benefit, when, quite simply, it was for their benefit, and after 10 years of their ownership and control we're still faced with the very real prospect of relegation and the heartbreak that brings to many fans. They're completely out of their depth, and the lack of investment in our training facilities and scouting system after 10 years shows they're stuck in the past and are unable to move us forward as a club.

EXETERHAMMER

Your last sentence is spot on Buffy, particularly the 'out of their depth' bit.

BubblesNeverDies

Sam Ricketts, Shrewsbury Town's manager describing how a a football club should be properly run.