It was the biggest transfer news of West Ham’s summer. Weeks were spent waiting, wondering, over-analyzing, grasping at tweets, placing money on odds, weeding out the rubbish ITK’s and following every bit of information.
Then a 13 year old kid broke the story and announced we’d signed Andy Carroll.
Prior to the club’s formal announcement, Jack Sullivan tweeted “Subject to medical Andy Carroll is now a WHU player, 6 year contract. £15.5m plus £2m of extras. Fingers crossed he medicals fine. #coyi”
Of course the kid was David Sullivan’s son, but it still seemed a funny way to announce the club’s record signing- in a tweet from a teenager. This was of course picked up on by many newspapers, which meant our biggest ever move had to share the headline with the fact that we told everyone via teenager (Mirror Football.)
Presumably we’ve sacked our PR team to help finance Carroll’s move.
Gold has spoken out on the subject after he was asked at a Q&A session about how he felt about young master Sullivan breaking the Carroll story. He defended Jack’s actions, in a very ‘he’s young, what can you do’ type of defense, saying “his father wouldn’t say to him ‘look, this is what’s happened, go and tweet it’…He’s a 13 year old kid, when he goes to school tomorrow, he’s like a God!”
Gold’s absolutely right; when I was 13 I certainly couldn’t keep a secret, much less one that thousands of people were on the edge of their seats waiting to hear. But why did he have access to that information in the first place? Did no one think to maybe grab the kid’s phone/computer while the David’s were having the ‘hey, so Andy’s signed’ conversation- especially after he also previously (albeit more cryptically) leaked the news when Carroll signed on loan? Or maybe tell the kid that our big signing was kind of a secret for another 24 hours?
So much behind the scenes work and effort went into the signing of Carroll, that you’d imagine the announcement to have a wee bit more fanfare. Of course with the rise of technology and the rapid-fire use of social media the rules of how to share privileged information were bound to change, but is it okay that this is how a major football club breaks its news?
I’m not attacking the kid here; as I said, I’d have done the same thing at 13 to be the cool kid at school (although your Dad co-owns West Ham, surely that’s enough to keep you in with the popular crowd, no?) I’m just wondering if there are etiquette rules for friends and family of those directly (and publically) involved in the football business? Should clubs issue proper non-disclosure statements to them, or is it all systems go with information sharing in this digital age?
A friend of mine is the son of a (now former) MD at a Premier League club, and never tweeted any gossip or leaked any stories (although confirmed/denied rumours via text if asked.) He was never formally asked not to, but just didn’t see what good would come from leaking information in advance- but of course not everyone takes this approach (especially not those still in their young teens.)
Of course I’m glad I found out about Carroll’s signing a few hours early, as it meant weeks of speculation were finally over. But it’s just not the big announcement a £15(ish)million player deserves, and while it shows we certainly are a club that keeps it in the family, you have to wonder what it makes us look like on a global scale. This was big news, and showed we are really ready to compete and push to another level this year- but the way we revealed it just didn’t give it the pomp and circumstance that both Andy Carroll and West Ham United deserve.
Very valid point,don’t blame the kid,but his father should have a word as this type of leak scuppered deals in the past and will again in future,his father should know better and twitter is awash with idiots pretending to have sources inside the club,like Bradley Palmer,a young kid getting kicks by spoofing about inside news,just his guesswork,and he and Jack Sullivan should keep quiet,kids at play!
Think this may be journalists getting possessive whether they love the hammers or not – to much hype about the kid spreading the word here and not enough about fantastic signing for the hammers. I personally couldn’t give a flying fuck where I heard it from / carrolls a hammer, I’m a hammer fan – COUI – thank you messrs gold and Sullivan along with big Sam – you just got us a new messiah
Try been a leeds supporter mate, we would be happy if Barney fookin Bear told us we’d signed someone !
On another note, i would like to thank you Hammers fans, for knocking off that pain in arse hammersfan, who plagues or site with his bollocks. Lol
Good luck next season, Carroll good buy, whatever other folk say.
Young Sully sounds like he going places !
He’d be no good up our way , he would have to understand the Koran !
Lol
you’ve not been down East Ham High street lately then?
No mate, lol , last time I was down your way was 1986 lol.
I live lake district to be honest.
Rainbows are still in black and white up here !
Not many ethnic minority up here, only experiance we have in our village are a family of indans who bought our only shop !
Its a dump, they try to sell out off date stuff, and try selling crisps not be sold seperate!
On top of that there sons are shit at cricket too !
Bad experiance !
Crime is a issue up our way too !
Stealing garden gnomes is getting well out of hand !
Apart from that , hope Carroll does ya well next year.
Be better for him away from scouse land .
Does it really matter in the great scheme of things, some like to know and some like you don’t, so a case of damned if you do and damed if you don’t, I just enjoy knowing whether its from the boy, a paper, itk, or formally from the O/S, as long as it good news. Because its been sometime since we have had some good news coming from our club.
Just try and enjoy it while it lasts, who knows how long this will last, after all this is West Ham. I like to think of it like a late summer evening sun on my face, just feels good.
Couldn’t agree more ! Storm in a tea cup , what’s done is done ! Now stop pissing on the parade
You are so right! It isn’t very often you can hold your head up high being an Irons fan, we’re normally neck deep! So when it does come it is all the sweeter! Simply enjoy!!!! COYI!
Alec loved the comment about the koran. you would need to text in hindi as well !
Thanks, dont think i’d manage hindi !
I struggled to get a grade 3 CSE in german at school !
Best laugh , only got grade 4 in english , lol
Who cares?! Let the kid have his 5secs of fame! Do the words mountain and molehill mean anything? Did anyone consider that the lad is just a very proud West Ham fan whose dad just happens to own the club!
Nothing to see here – move along.
Of course David Sullivan allows his son to do this. If he tweeted something libellous or racist he’d soon have his phone & computer off him!
Why not? If young Jack didn’t tweet it some other itk would so why not give your son the extra kudos & get the good news out there? Plus, It allows him to get accurate figures & stuff out even when the official line is not to release them.
It’s pretty obvious that David Sullivan is desperate to be liked & accepted by WH fans and encouraging his son to tweet bits & pieces of news about impending or possible signings is another way of increasing his own popularity with fans.
“Plus, It allows him to get accurate figures & stuff out even when the official line is not to release them.” – A very good point!
Fair enough but remember what happened with Martin O’Neill,someone jumped the gun after he agreed to take over and he pulled out,we got relegated by Jabba Grant!
Fair comment but that someone wasn’t Jack Sullivan which emphasises the point I’m making.
I think we were lucky to miss out on twitchy O’Neill & I thank the person who leaked that info.
It never made any sense to me morally, as to get a job someone always needs to be relieved of their duties!
I have felt a little like that in the past but to be honest I’m beyond that point now and any good news is Great news even if it is leaked by young Jack. Let us simply enjoy the moment.
If a player wants to come here then the fact that an early leaking of the fact shouldn’t change things….and if it does, then he’s NOT the player we were looking for.
Something worth noting is the fact that young Jack is West Ham through and through, and he IS the heir to being the future West Ham Chairman!