Our writer Katherine Alder, offers some support to West Ham’s owners, Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold.
With their reluctance to sack Avram Grant last season and the fact that they weren’t exactly subtle in talking to the press, the two Davids (or TTDs) didn’t get a lot of praise from the Hammers faithful last season.
Before they arrived, West Ham were a club in crisis, With the meltdown of the Icelandic reign before them, TTDs had a lot of problems with overpaid stars who didn’t care about wearing the shirt and a mountain of debt to try and climb. So far, I think that they’re doing an admirable job overall of tackling the problems.
West Ham United was on the verge of being in administration according to TTDs at the time of their takeover. Yes, the team did get relegated last season, but maybe that was actually the wake up call the club needed to try and get the finances back on track and truly see which players really wanted to play for us.
The team we’ve got now seem to all want to put on that shirt come Saturday and all seem to take pride in the club. Our results have shown this, and there’s a really good vibe about the club at the moment.
The only thing I would hugely criticise them on is not giving Gianfranco Zola enough of a chance at the helm of the club. The players loved him and he had only just started his managerial career, and more importantly, he kept the club in the Premier League. Zola was just finding his feet and I think it was pretty harsh of TTDs to sack him without giving him any more time, especially when you consider who replaced him!
I do think TTDs get a bit of a rough deal – they’ve brought some financial stability to the club and have essentially done what they’ve thought has been best for West Ham. The only way is up for the Hammers now. Come on you Irons!
But Karen, If Zola were truly a good manager that needed time, why has nobody hired him? SuGoBrat, as I call the trio, were crass and rude in their handling of Zola. But if they had not been conned by Moron Grant (liking my nicknames?) and hired a proper manager right away the question oh what Zola might have been would never be asked.
I agree with you Dave, Zola hasn’t been in a job since he was sacked, and West Ham only stayed up 2 seasons ago purely and simply because Hull hired Ian Dowie as their manager, a man with even more clueless than Avram Grant. As for David Sullivan’s very public castigation of the players, if l were Zola, l wouldn’t have wanted to work for them either! I truly believe, when we move into the new stadium and Upton Park is sold for development, Gold Sullivan and Brady will walk away from West Ham with very fat back pockets………COYI ‘><'