WHAT? I'm in charge next week? (img from Independant)

All was going to plan in the Sullivan & Gold offices at Upton Park.

Slowly but surely turning the screw, increasingly making Avram Grant’s position as manager untenable. Avram himself wasn’t helping with results, it must be added.

“O’NEIL TO BECOME THE NEW MANAGER OF WEST HAM”, we hear immediately prior to Grant taking charge against Arsenal. A mole in the boardroom suprised us all (and I assume Avram too) with the leak.

Did they prepare, however, for a situation whereby a manager, who’s position is now untenable, has to be kept in a job because their despicable antics have left them no choice?

It wasn’t so long ago when we were in a similar situation as they gently, but forcibly, led Zola to the exit door. “We don’t sack our managers”, they cry as justification for the mutual dismissal of Zola. He wasn’t, of course, their appointment.

Grant was. And Grant is, I quote, “Our man”.

Criticisms have been aimed Grant’s way throughout the season. We still persist with 4-5-1 and continue to sit back, absorb pressure and concede. It doesn’t get any better. But whatever you think of Grant, his tactis, his ambition and his enthusiasm (or lack thereof), nobody deserves this treatment. Not him, and not the fans.

But how could it, with a pair of callous owners who objectify the fans and so far, their managers. They sell at us, they honestly believe that at the end of a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Arsenal we all want to hear Jeremy over the tannoy telling us of the great deals on matches in the coming weeks.

We don’t.

Neither do we constantly want to be told how great they are each time they “slash” prices, with “massive” discounts for members and that Birmingham is “kids for a quid”. And of course cup games, from now onwards, are going to have “Spec-tactular” savings. Until you get to the semi’s, then we’re going to whack the prices up again.

Stop telling us how great you are.

You’re not.

We’ve a proud tradition and you’re a disgrace to it. Throughout my life, I’ve proudly worn the claret & blue. At the moment I’m ashamed of it.

Your behaviour towards Zola and Grant reeks of cowardice. It’s gutless,  craven and vicious; frankly no way for owners of a football club to behave. You conspire in the shadows to overthrow a manager, who has a hard enough job as it is. There’s no dignity or integrity in tacking a backhanded approach to the dismissal of a manager, no matter how good or bad he is.

You’re cowards. All three of you. With one apparent focus….yourselves.

Constant appearances in the press, a “reveal all” column in the Sun. Is this honestly how you think, oh experienced ones, it’s acceptable to run a football club? Shallow promises to fans, leaks from within the club.

Speculation is supposed to be started by the press, not by the club itself. Sort it out.

With all of this going on, there’s still the expectation of the team to perform and drag itself of the bottom of the league, where it seems to be so mutually attached. You continue to tell us to get behind the team. Tell us how wonderful our support is.

How about that starts from the top?

I can only account for one occasion that you’ve listened to the fans and that’s when we asked you to stop spouting your mouths off in the press. The time you decide to do it conveniently came when everyone involved with the club actually needed you to make a statement. Nice one.

The statement, of course, did finally arrive.

It was a grovelling defence, declaring support for….. Karen Brady. Not Grant. Wouldn’t want to do them a disservice mind you he was mentioned, in passing.

A timid backing for a man who is now tasked with steering our side to safety, with a semi-final second leg, because who in their right mind would now want his job?

Somehow, I can’t see it happening.

The next post will include your thoughts on the running track, the atmosphere and ground-sharing. It will also include a selection of your comments.

Thank you again to everyone who took part.

Please share the results with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends – you can also download the RAW DATA HERE and a PDF of the infographic below

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Huge thank you to FootballUnited.com, for allowing me the time to crunch these numbers.

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The comments from Gold and Sullivan as they faced the press after buying their 50% controlling stake in West Ham filled many of us with some optimism once more about the future of our club. OK, the debt was huge, but that’s what they were doing surely, helping to resolve the debt. To keep our bigger name players and maybe bring in some new faces. In fact, their exact comment was:

“We can reassure fans who were terrified that they were going to lose two or three of the best players that that is now not going to happen.”

This is fantastic isn’t it? We’ve got new owners who have a love of West Ham on their hearts, they’re West Ham fans after all…he was born just up the road at number 442 after all. If I remember, Terrence Brown was a West Ham fan too.

OK, maybe they’re not able to bring in star players but at the very least we have some stability. That’s all we as fans ever asked for. Direction and stability.

Sullivan’s trap didn’t stop there though. Since the ‘takeover’ he has continued to spout his mouth off about the debt we are in. Frankly David, we don’t need to hear it any more. It’s not that any of us are in denial about out perilous financial situation, we’re all very aware of that…hence our desire to wrap up new owners as quick as possible. The worst thing you can do it continue to chat to the press about how bad things are still. But continue he does and it’s not filling me with any confidence in the slightest…and it’s certainly not stabilising.

Stability – or complete lack of

This one, for example, about Zola published just today:

Of all the managers I’ve dealt with he [Zola] is the nicest. The question is ‘Is he too nice?’ Ossie Ardiles was the nicest guy you could meet but look what he did to Tottenham. Time will tell. Zola will prove himself over the next few games

Helpful.

Or this one

“It’s not awful” – in reference to selling Upson. In fact, he continues…like only he can.

“If we can get a substantial sum for him then we’ve got to take it. It’s business sense”

But why stop there?

“He’s in his prime as a centre-half, but he is probably in his last four or five years and it’s not awful that he has to be sold”

What possible remaining incentive is there for Upson now to give a toss about playing for us any more? Why should he bother?

He’s clearly not wanted here by the ‘owners’. But remember, they’re West Ham fans after all so what they’re saying must reflect that of West Ham fans across the globe. Just because their bit on the side once had some beef with Upson, there’s no reason so sacrifice him just to keep her happy. Because none of us want her here more than Upson.

In fact it’s nothing more than demoralising, foolish, unhelpful and utter stupiditiy. Maybe that is the case that Upson wants to move on…so be it. But to come out into the media and say something like that is quite simply a huge kick in the b**locks to everything we’ve fought for over the past few seasons…to keep hold of the bigger name players. To push places in the league. It was a mistake to sell Collins at the expense of keeping Upson maybe, but to now say that “Upson will be sold and we don’t really care much about it” makes us look like right royal mugs.

To say, however, that it makes business sense to sell him completely undermines one of the first things they ever said publicly about West Ham – that buying us “makes no business sense at all”

They said that buying West Ham from that point of view was a stupid thing to do, therefore if keeping Upson is a stupid thing to do too (from a business point of view), then they should do it. Because from a footballing point of view, it’s the right thing to do. And I’m here for the football.

It actually undermines what they said about us not losing our biggest players too – well actually maybe it doesn’t. At least we’re not “terrified” any more as we know it’s going to happen.

Personally I feel that Sullivan and Gold have done nothing more since they come in than rock the boat. They came in riding on their donkey’s, self-proclaiming themselves as the saviours of West Ham. Filling us with a confidence that what had been, is no longer…we can comfortably look forward to security and stability. Yet since that day they have done nothing more that take the megaphone by two hands, blurt their mouths of and frankly agitate the situation further.

They came in riding on their donkeys, self-proclaiming themselves as the saviours of West Ham

Buying West Ham makes perfect business sense

Here’s the thing. Buying West Ham does make perfect business sense…maybe less so if we go down however. OK, wage bills are through the roof and we’ve acquired some major crocks over the past few years. That, we all agree, needs to change.

Why are they so keen to to get us into the Olympic Stadium – so keen in fact that they’ve employed some tart on what is likely to be a huge amount of money who is solely responsible for getting us into that stadium. The reason they are so set on getting us there is because of the value that the Boleyn Ground holds.

They are set to make a huge amount of money if we end up at the Olympic Stadium.

We move to the Olympic Stadium, we rent it. We sell the Boleyn for a substantial sum – therefore easily reimbursing Gold & Sullivan for their investment in the club and then some. They are set to make a huge amount of money if we end up at the Olympic Stadium.

So yes, buying us at a fairly decent price make complete business sense.

Trouble is, sell the Boleyn and you all sell our soul. You lose the atmosphere and the passion that has resonated around the famous stadium for decades. I can’t help but think that they are only likely to drive our club down a division or two by making a grave misjudgement about this stadium move. It’s the wrong thing to do…but not for them, it will work out brilliantly.

UPDATE: In  fact, in response to Sullivan’s most recent remarks, Zola has been pushed to question their necessity. To get Zola cross takes a lot of work:

“I am not happy about it, I don’t think it does any good for the team.” — Zola

Summed up my post nicely Franco, cheers

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