OPINION
West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold should be up in arms as Adrian Durham claimed the Hammers are just happy to be in the Premier League.
The broadcaster was unimpressed by the Hammers’ performance against Chelsea on Monday but claimed it wasn’t just a case of the players not delivering the goods.
Durham claimed that he had to question the mentality of the Hammers as they seemed to be a side content with just being in England’s top-flight and they were willing to have wantaway players as well as injury-prone talents on their books.
“I question more than the players, I question the mentality of the football club because at West Ham United they seem to be quite happy at just being in the Premier League,” said Durham on talkSPORT (Tuesday April 9th, 16:26).
“There seem to be a bit of flirtation with relegation…I’m talking at the football club, they’re okay just being in the Premier League, okay seemingly selling their players if the money is right.
“That has to change.
“They seem to be quite happy making signings who have a wish to go elsewhere and make it clear in January or have players they know have been injury prone before they’ve got to the club, and here they are injury prone again.
“I feel sympathy with injury-prone players, it must be terrible being injured all the time, but as a business, as a football club, why would you sign those players.
“Plenty of problems at West Ham and the fans are trying to put it right.”
While the Hammers’ form isn’t fantastic with Gold and Sullivan having made mistakes in the past, to blame the club’s problems on a lack of ambition is ridiculous.
Durham is clearly trying to ring the alarm bell amongst Hammers supporters in order to get a reaction as the ambitions and mentality of the club is not something that should be questioned.
Gold and Sullivan oversaw the club moving to the London Stadium and while a controversial decision, it did show they wanted the Hammers to be playing in an arena that would encourage their fanbase to grow.
The co-owners also over saw the club spend £94.82million (Source: Transfermarkt) on transfer this season and appointed a manager with an impressive CV in the form on Manuel Pellegrini.
The Hammers likely didn’t waste time convincing a manager to take the reigns at the Hammers only for him to be content with retaining their Premier League status.
With this in mind, Gold and Sullivan should be up in arms over Durham under minding the Hammers as while their decisions haven’t all worked out, to question the club’s mentality insults their attempts to achieve progress this season.
