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I’ll compile them all into one post tomorrow, but here’s a couple of comments firstly from Gold, then Sullivan

More to come as I edit it – including a few videos

Gutted

Sam

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

]]> http://westhamprocess.FootballUNITED.com/2010/02/09/brown-was-a-west-ham-fan-to/feed/ 4 http://westhamprocess.FootballUNITED.com/2010/01/18/bets-suspended-on-zola-being-next-to-get-chop/ http://westhamprocess.FootballUNITED.com/2010/01/18/bets-suspended-on-zola-being-next-to-get-chop/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:53:42 +0000 Sam H http://westhamprocess.com/?p=2112 For me, it makes for pretty gutting reading, but all bets on Zola to be the next manager to be sacked have been suspended because of unusual betting patterns. According to this source, one London based customer was “looking to place a five figure sum” when the price was 5-1

The spokesman for William Hill has said “They were backing Zola at any price and there must be a rumour that either he is walking or the likely new owners are not Zola fans”

What do people make of all this – personally, I would be entirely unimpressed if the first thing that the new board was to do was to sack Zola.

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but it’s STABILITY that we need

COYI

Again believing of rumours is entirely your discretion, but I’m reporting what I’m hearing!

IRONS

It did.

It would seem that Bolton had every right to be smug about last night’s fixture. And I’m sure had they known the lacklusture, painful, aching performance that we were going to take to their place, that actually they would have been even more confident. Their pre-match confidence was not undue and frankly, once again, they deserved their result.

Currently we are a sorry reflection of the enthusiastic, passing side that ended last season – and that we all thought would start this season. Maybe it’s fair to point part of the blame on injuries. But not all of it. The rest of the blame must surely lie firmly on the shoulders of Harry Redknapp and Terrence Brown. Tongue firmly in cheek.

The club is crying out for a shake up, we’re squandering and stagnating in an era past, defined by the Tevez saga and the financial meltdown of an entire nation and we need to push on from that now. The need for a takeover is even more pressing even if it is to just breathe some new life into what is fast become a side with confidence lower than any one of Tiger Wood’s mistresses’ pants.

I hold my hands up and say “well done” to Bolton after last night. I was unusually confident before the game and I’m left seriously questioning whether we have what it takes to stay up this year. Unless there is an injection not of cash but of vibrancy, bringing a buzz back to the place again then we are in for a long, long season. As fans we can be part of that – it’s hard to do but uninhibited support of our West Ham in the face of what has thus far been a shocking season, under the floodlights of Upton Park on Sunday is going to do more good to the players’ confidence than boos, jeers and calls for anyone’s head.

Then again, if we witness another performance devoid of passion and direction – against London rivals – ‘those’ question marks will grow ever heavier. And murmurings of discontent will, I’m sure, become far more than that.

COYI

Sam

So optimism and expectation was high going into the Everton game. Morale was up, confidence was good. That, it would seem, is often a problem for West Ham – perhaps we just get carried away too quickly?

It’s fair to say that we had the best of the game last night – the players were hungry (particularly Parker and Behrami), we were creating chances and I felt were up for it. And then, out of nothing, Saha just decides that it was about time he put the ball in the back of the net…so he did.

Strikers and chances

Was that the difference between the two sides? The ability to put chances away…we certainly had the lion’s share of chances (I think 18 attempts on goal compared to their 9), yet we only manage a poor 4 on target (compared to their 5). How we were not 1 or even 2 up at half time, I don’t know.

It was becoming frustrating at times – my mentality was becoming, “well even if we are in a good position, I just can’t see us scoring”. That’s never a good sign.

Tactics

However…was the difference more to do with tactics? From where I was standing, and this is not a criticism of Parker or any other midfielder, but I felt the decision to start with Jiminez in a forward position (think it may even have been a 4-3-3 setup from the outset) was a wrong one. Fellani was having a lovely time in the middle of the park and he, to me, was running the show. Every instance the ball was at his feet, he seemed to have time to do something with it. That should never have been the case. I really felt we were crying out for an extra man in the middle – and although he’s had some criticism this year, that man needed to be Noble.

The only good thing to come out of playing against Fellani yesterday was the song that originated from the back of the STB lower…

“He’s got an old bird’s muff, on his head”

The ‘Ref’

Or perhaps, and finally, we were subject again to a poor refereeing performance. Running the risk of sounding sounding like Steve Bruce here, but are the refs getting worse and worse every week? I don’t think it’s an excuse for all those chances we spurned, and equally he was bad for both sides, but was Franco not onside when he put the ball in the back of the net in the closing minutes? Did he not warn Fellani over and over again for a) some of his challenges and b) for arguing back- yet fail to book him until late in the game?

I’m sure Everton fans could probably chip in with some bookable offences that he missed for them them too – so it’s not a complaint of bias here, more a complaint (again) of inconsistency.

When and Everton player went down in the second half, the ref felt it correct to stop the game for him – despite the fact he was standing up. And then not ask him to leave the pitch for treatment – they’re just small things, but refs need to be consistent in these decisions. If he was injusred, yet still standing, make him leave the field for treatment. Is that not how it should work?

Some positives…

- Scott Parker, to me was immense…and I am left scratching my head a little as to why Jenas and co get picked for the England side over him (well, Parker at his best anyway)

- Da Costa seems to me to be brilliant in the air – although not 100% convinced, my opinion of him is growing by the game

- I don’t think we’re far from clicking as a team – and when that happens, I’m confident we’ll make ground on Liverpool

COYI

Sam

Despite the need for this added security, we don’t find ourselves in the situation that The Mirror quite disgracefully reported not so long ago that every single one of our ‘name’ players would be sold in the transfer window. Why they are allowed to publish such drivel, I don’t know.

Anyway…Eggert. The rumours circulating today are that Eggert is considering making an offer to take us over, for the second time. Although, the Telegraph reports, he wouldn’t be interested at the current price of £100M.

I’ve written about Eggert before a couple of times, but once around the time of Curbishley’s departure…this is what I wrote:

“There is currently a lot of cristicism floating about for Eggert Magnusson, but what is so clear now is that he oozed ambition…

Raw ambition without control is a dangerous as well, someting really dangerous. And too much control without any ambition (the situation we find otutselves in now) is equally devestating.”

The context of that comment was that I felt that Eggert was naive with his (and BG’s) money, and spent it foolishly. However what that demonstrated to me at least, was that he wanted to bring success to West Ham first and foremost. To the club and to the fans.

I’m not going to get carried away just yet with the rumours, but does anyone else feel that actually with the current triumvirate that we have in place (Zola, Nani, Duxburry) would be the perfect setting to contain and manage Eggert’s desire for success….whilst also matching it?

The prospect excites me, but it is still just a rumour

IRONS

Sam

Often face-first.

But, personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m taking no different approach to this evening’s game against Citeh. I see there as being every chance that we can go to Eastlands and get a result, if not a win…but if the players and staff go there with any other opinion, then I could see us being in big trouble. But no need to dwell.

Ok, so City have spent the equivalent on what would keep a developing country from poverty over the last year or so. They’re matching, I assume, their big transfer fees with infalted wages. The thing is if you spoil a child, they only end up wanting more. The richest people in the world will never be satisfied with earning more money – they will grow to need more. And it’s been shown over and over again in football that placing arrogant, egotisitcal players in a squad together, pay them big money (some more than others), you only end up breeding greed and a desire for more.

No Citeh player will ever be happy or content. Their egos will continue to grow, their pockets continue to bulge and all the while, I feel, their undoing will come to pass. Adebayor for example…he wasn’t content with a big money transfer away from Arsenal. He wasn’t happy with just big wages. He had to go one step further to quench his desire to prove something to Arsenal and their fans…he simply had to act like a moron just to get one up on them. Do you think he’s happy with that now? Somehow, I doubt it.

The very fabric of what their plastic club now stands for is indulgence and gluttony. And unless they get over that, the rot will eat away and they will only ever be known as under achievers.

Grounds for optimism

Perhaps I’m being a little harsh on them? But as far as I’m concerned tongiht, what I’ve mentioned could be our grounds for optimism. That the Citeh players, may expect to win tonight. The fans certainly do. They may be taking the winning part as a ‘given’ just how many goals they’ll score will remain to be seen.

I’d hazard a guess that they figured exactly the same when they played Wolves and Portsmouth earlier in the year..yet only winning 1-0 on both occasions. May I be as bold to say that we will put up more than a fight than both of those sides?

Ok, they thumped Arsenal. But for that game, they had to ‘up their game’ and change their mentality.

If we go there this evening and humbly play the quality of football that we know Zola has instilled in our side. Work hard and play our game, then I’m confident that it won’t be the walkover that so many pundits and fans alike (from both sides) are predicting.

Who thought Wigan would beat Chelsea 3-1.

Who thought Burnely would turn over United 1-0?

We need to get behind our side tonight. The results so far this year have been disappointing, and our displays at times a shadow of what we were seeing last year, but I have faith. I trust in the project, and I trust in Zola.

Let’s stop knee jerking and calling for people’s heads. It’s exactly the behaviour you’d expect from clubs like City, Spurs and Chelsea. It’s pathetic, and West Ham aren’t like that; long may that continue.

Come on you IRONS!

Sam