ROTTEN AT THE CORE
One thing that supporting West ham can never be said is that it is boring, even when the season is over there is still plenty going on but this off season has surpassed many in the past from not sacking Sam to the badge change through to DS drunk on talksport and the most pointless tour West Ham have undertaken down under. Never have I so looked forward to the start of a season, not because I feel it will be an improvement on last season as I think were in for more of the same, but at least it will be football we will be talking about and not our owners or Sam or the badge.
Looking back at my article for olas in the Spurs game at the end of the season I alluded to the fact that I believed that Sam was going to be sacked. Sullivan had enough of him and he was a gonna. My information was coming from people with direct access to Sullivan, and in fact I was also told that Sullivan knew that a section of the fans were openly engaging in putting pressure on the club to sack him and he in turn encouraged this as well. What happened to change his mind is one thing I don’t know, he has the power to act alone without Gold or anyone else stopping him as he has majority control of the shares as he owns himself over 50%, so at the end of season meeting the Monday after the spurs game I waited for the phone call to tell me he was gone. Alas, that call never came but I didn’t panic as the meeting ended with no outcome being announced and it was possible that severance was being agreed.
On the Thursday of that week no outcome had been announced I emailed David Sullivan myself directly, sending him comments from online forums of the many Season ticket holders threatening to not renew if Sam stayed, this was not the first time I have emailed him and to give him credit, he always responds openly and honesty, his reply was short this time “ we go on with changes” I responded with “ I hope it’s the right change, for the record I cant think of any reason to make me boycott and nothing would make me do so, but I just wanted to point out to you the risk you run in keeping him. Good luck”.
His reply left me stunned at 1st, it was the official West Ham United statement outlining that Sam was being kept, but he must change. The reason for being stunned was that the club had made no official statement yet it wasn’t on the website, yet here it is, in full emailed to me, an unknown fan, I could of leaked this myself and spoiled the clubs release of it, but no, I didn’t and the reason for that is that is no way for the clubs business to be conducted, I don’t agree with the tittle tattle of the ITKs rushing round trying to be the 1st to bring the breaking news, or Sully Jnr releasing it on twitter or DS or DG themselves briefing their mate so his website can have the exclusive on the latest list of players were bidding for. If football is to be a business as I am always told it is, then it should act like one off the field where it matters, do the things the right way, not the way the club is doing things at the moment that is for sure.
It turned out I wasn’t the only person to receive this Press release early either but luckily that person contacted the club and allowed them the time to put the statement up on the website before they put it out to the sites they write for.
Sam survived but with caveats, more attacking football, attacking coach, but this has not stopped the public embarrassment of the club. Big Sam alluding too it was the new attacking directive that accounted for our atrocious pre season tour of New Zealand, Sullivan then going on Talksport, while on holiday in Spain and attacking Sam which was topped off with DG favouriting a sack Sam tweet but then coming out and blaming jet lag.
A fcking script writer for a soap couldn’t do a better job.
These may be a little things in the scheme of things but if they cant get the little things right what chance the big things.
Talking of big things that leads nicely into the Badge change debacle that for me showed that the people running the club while they say they will listen to the fans, one of their original 10 points when they took over the club, if the fans views get in the way of what they want they will do as they please.
The background to our badge change starts for me years ago across London when Arsenal was looking to remodel their badge. The Arse looked at adding the word London onto their new stripped back and modern badge but decided against it, it didn’t sit right apparently on their new crest with just the Gun sitting in a 2 tone coloured shield. Fast forward to the end of may this year and I watched a video at an SAB meeting where the thinking behind a new badge was being shown, the club had hired a design company who via the video outlined their thinking behind what they had come up with,,, Crossed hammers on a 2 tone shield with London on it, oh and they year we were formed 1895.
This was all hush hush as the club didn’t want this to get out, the castle was to be retired apparently as with the move it no longer represented the club. Funny that, as the hammers are the riveting hammers used to build ships at the ironworks in canning town and they haven’t built a ship on the Thames since 1912 but I haven’t seen anyone want to retire them and nor should they.
Of course none of that explains why the Arsenal connection, well, Karren Brady has already revealed in the Sun she’s from a gooner supporting family, since she has been running the club the behind the scenes staff has seen many goings and comings, the new Chief Exec came from Arsenal, a new marketing Chief, came from Arsenal, a new person to oversee the move to the OS, came from Arsenal, Various junior level marketers have arrived, some from Arsenal, so its no wonder that London has been added to the badge because its probably the same people that stripped back and modernised the Arsenal badge into a 2 tone shield with a gun on it that stripped back and modernised our badge onto a 2tone shield with just hammers on it. They then took this badge with the date and London on it and released it, but even that was a joke. The club rushed through with this quicker than they wanted too as 1 outraged member of the SAB broke ranks and stared to reveal what was being done, the club had no choice but to reveal it as across social media it was already being discussed. As for the Yougov poll, independent they claim, my arse I say. We will listen to the fans claimed DG on twitter, 10,000 took part, out of half a million possible if the club can be believed, of that just over 50% voted said they liked the new badge, no ringing endorsement, but enough for the club to claim victory and the castle is history.
Funny how the club didn’t listen though when 78% of over 16,000 voted to sack Allardyce.
When the club move I will still go, but I have said in the past that I justify that to myself by the fact that when West Ham leave the Boleyn they will cease to exist, and like when West ham were formed in 1900 replacing the Thames ironworks team, a new club will be in Stratford ill go support them, I just never expected the club the actually make that thought easier but in 2017, a nice new shiny modern west ham will be in situ, with a new badge. Where will it end where will it stop.
The march to be seen as The London club continues, Karren Brady when revealing this week the update on how the hospitality at the new stadium is going, something that will concern only 3,500 of the 54,000 fans, she writes in the London evening standard, she addresses the article not just to west ham fans but to Londoners as a whole, if she wanted to update fans properly, why not do it by email, the club inundate us with crap emails anyway why choose to do it in the standard, because the club want to be seen as a team for the whole of London not just East London. To me West Ham is an EAST London club and this is another attempt by the club to move away from its past, to re-invent itself as something it is not. There is no one club of London and nor should there be.
We were one of the 1st to get a .London domain and for years now our new signings have been paraded in front of London images not West ham images, these include the London eye, St Paul’s and Houses of parliament and my favourite, Canary Wharf, built on the site of the Millwall Docks
The addition of London on the badge is for marketing purposes only to help us be identified to the legions of foreigners who have no club to support as yet but like London so may be they will follow us. But, what if that don’t work, in the clubs rush to be associated with London what will they do next if that fails?
London Hammers anyone, why not, after all its only a name, don’t mean anything, Does it?
The core of any club is the owners and ours is Rotten to the core. From sullivans leaks and public outbursts, from DGs on twitter whether down to jet lag or not through to Brady and her pursuit of turning this club into Arsenal lite. Sick of the lot of the I am.
