Do They Have West Ham’s Interests At Heart?

Recent weeks have said a lot about our two chairmen and Karen Brady. In the same week West Ham hero Paolo Di Canio took charge at Sunderland we had Karen Brady and David Sullivan openly criticising him for his alleged political beliefs in separate articles.

Earlier than that David Sullivan started his public pursuit of Wilfried Bony, a move which now seems nothing more than a marketing ploy. With David Gold we have the constant opportunity to tweet him and let him know our thoughts with the odd tweet getting a response. So after a few weeks where they have certainly been in the spotlight it is fitting that I am writing an article discussing my thoughts on the owners.

Firstly, I am pleased with the increased stability we have at the club with regard to getting promotion and looking as if we will stay up this season. Do I believe that it is by some miracle that we have managed to do that and that DG and DS are legends for doing it? No, because simply put if we hadn’t had got promoted last season with the squad we had, it would have been a disgrace. They employed Big Sam, is he the only manager that could have got us promoted at the first time of asking and kept us safe this season? No, he isn’t and he hasn’t done it in good style or particularly well either (we needed the playoffs to get here!) but as I said I am very happy to be in the situation we are in but many fans go overboard with their praise of the owners and of Big Sam. They aren’t the only people in the world that could have done this and they certainly haven’t worked miracles BUT we are in a far better position and the owners deserve praise for that.

My first problem with the owners is their insistence on claiming that they are the saviours of West Ham and that they are not in it for the money. They are shrewd businessmen and saw an opportunity to buy West Ham very cheaply, get the OS and inflate the price of the club. They are in it for monetary gain and thus it frustrates me that they have said emphatically that they are not. I wouldn’t care if they said nothing on the subject but to claim that they aren’t in it to gain money from it is just ridiculous. No businessman goes in to something unless they are at the very least hoping to gain money from it. An example, they promised to lower ticket prices to make West Ham a family club, disabled season tickets were going to be raised by 107% before fans like myself tweeted in disgust about it. They saw our annoyance but only capped the rise in price at 50% rather than abolish the rise. David Gold had the audacity to compare our prices with Champions League side Arsenal which I thought said a lot about him. My problem with the owners is that I am not convinced that they are such huge fans of the club because if they were they wouldn’t take all of us for mugs.

Now I will move on to the open criticism of Paolo Di Canio. Who knew that our porn baron owners were so against the idea of having PDC as a manager of our football club? No one, because despite being owners of the club for quite some time now the Paolo Di Canio lounge still exists with Paolo’s name plastered all over it. For Karren Brady and David Sullivan to openly criticise Paolo Di Canio’s alleged political beliefs is disgraceful. It is disgraceful because what they both wrote was completely untrue. Their articles showed that they have no interest in who Di Canio is or what he believes in and instead just looked at the headlines and believed what the media were saying. Sullivan notes that unless he renounces his fascist beliefs he will never be able to manage West Ham whilst Sullivan and Gold are at the helm. The problem there is that Di Canio’s actual beliefs aren’t fascist at all in the modern sense of the word. In fact most British people would agree with his views on immigration. It frustrates me that two people who occupy such high positions at the club wrote such garbage about a West Ham hero whilst at the same time making money off his name. That sentence says all you need to know about our owners, mercenary’s. When Di Canio called himself a fascist it was a misguided comment because when you read about what he actually believes in he is not a fascist. In his owns words he said it to be part of a group. Unfortunately our “West Ham fan” owners couldn’t be bothered to do their research on one of the greatest West Ham players ever before mindlessly commenting on his beliefs and attempting to take the moral high ground which of course is nigh on impossible for porn barons.

Now on to the Olympic Stadium. We as fans were promised consultation. We have not been consulted at all regarding the OS yet Karen Brady sent an e-mail around earlier in the week proclaiming that as promised consultation was going to happen soon. All I will say is that there is no point consulting us when there isn’t anything important to be consulted about. I am in favour of the move but am extremely annoyed at the way they dealt with the OS. The owners knew getting the OS would make them very rich men when WHUFC climbs the ranks or the eventually sell, either way, they will make a lot of money. They went after the OS with no respect of fans opinions at all and then to send out an e-mail saying as promised fans will now be consulted as if that’s what we expected their promise to mean is a load of rubbish in my opinion. They wanted nothing to get in the way of getting the OS. As for David Sullivan’s open pursuit of Wilfried Bony, if we end up getting Bony then well played but I doubt we will get him and DS was probably just trying to goad Liverpool in to accepting a lower offer for Carroll when we eventually put a bid in for him. As per usual with David Sullivan he wishes he was the manager and seems to think us fans care about his opinion. Like his son, both should be more careful with what they do and say.

My article has been distinctly negative so far and understandably there will be some passionate DS and DG supporters frothing at the mouth right now perhaps they have even written a strongly worded reply but here is a short paragraph of positives. For all their imperfections of which there are many, David Gold and David Sullivan with the help of Karren Brady have put us in a much more stable position than when they took over. They promised a new stadium and they delivered (lucky they got the OS because there was no way they were going to cough up for a new one themselves). We are now in the Premier League and our league position suggests we have had a good season. I am of the opinion we would have done much better with a manager like PDC in charge but I digress.

They set out to do a job and they have done it. Do I agree with the way they have gone about it? No, in fact I think they have dealt with many situations terribly but having David Gold on Twitter at least gives us some insight in to the club that other fans don’t. However, recent weeks have enabled the top 3 people of our club to show their true colours and they have done that in emphatic style, none of it shedding a positive light over them as individuals in my opinion.

I like being controversial so please comment with your thoughts, many of you I am sure will disagree with what I have said. I will say it now, you are naive if you believe everything the owners have said. Yes, we are in a much better position than we were when they took over and they deserve praise for that. Sam isn’t the only manager that could have done it and DS and DG aren’t the only rich men who could have bought West Ham and done it so the praise should be what they deserve not overboard which much of it has been. Their pockets come before West Ham and as supposed fans of the club I have been disappointed with their handling of almost every situation they have faced at the club. Since they have been in charge we have lost a lot of what is fundamental about West Ham Football Club. The Boleyn ground, attempting to play football and our youth system are all gone from the club and that is a disgrace in my opinion and it is their doing. For me, the negatives outweigh the one positive they have and because they aren’t the only guys who could have achieved that positive it is massively outweighed by the negatives. I am not a fan of them as owners, perhaps if I met them it might be different but at the same time all I have seen from them is an act which they have failed to keep up. As the saying goes “actions speak louder than words” and what they have done as owners is at odds with what they claim to be and want to do.