Hammer Head ... shark?

Dave Rudd

"I can't believe the contracts I've inherited" added Sullivan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8505540.stm

I didn't know much about Gold and Sullivan before they took over West Ham, but I have to say that I've been less than impressed with their public statements over the last couple of weeks. They may have made their respective fortunes, but they don't come over as the highly professional businessmen that I expected them to be. To read that Sullivan is surprised by the contracts he has inherited tells me that his Due Diligence efforts must have been a bit wanting.

I know our financial state is parlous, but do we really feel that they would have been right for us?

SoundAsa£

Don't know one way or the other to be honest....saw Sullivan being interviewed on 'Hard Talk' a couple of days ago and he seemed a reasonable enough bloke.
Well........ he didn't come across as dislikable shall we say.

BigRedEvil

Seems to me they are saying alot about the finances so if they can't sort it out they can defer the blame to the Icelanders in a few years time.

Henry Irving

Sounds like they are preparing West Ham fans for some bad news/hard times if they go down and even if they stay up. Seems sensible to me. I'm fairly sure they did the due dilligence as they were saying WHU were in a mess from day 1.

If only Simple Simon had done that at Palace.

But different here as we are a PLC so the accounts are published every year on time.

Bournemouth Addick

"110 mobile phones being paid for by the club"...flipping eck. Assuming that's non playing staff (they can just about afford a PAYG Nokia I reckon), that must mean everyone else at the club is getting their phone bill paid! What a mess.

BlackForestReds

[cite]Posted By: Dave Rudd[/cite]"I can't believe the contracts I've inherited" added Sullivan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8505540.stm

I didn't know much about Gold and Sullivan before they took over West Ham, but I have to say that I've been less than impressed with their public statements over the last couple of weeks. They may have made their respective fortunes, but they don't come over as the highly professional businessmen that I expected them to be. To read that Sullivan is surprised by the contracts he has inherited tells me that his Due Diligence efforts must have been a bit wanting.

I know our financial state is parlous, but do we really feel that they would have been right for us?

I think you miss the intention behind the string of bad news emanating from West Ham. It's no surprise that that the club is financially screwed and it's likely that they are going to sell a few assets. This prepares the ground for the bad news and lets the fans know that if they thought that the new regime was going to invest in new players then they are going to be disappointed.

You can be sure they did their due diligence and are not shocked at what they are uncovering because they already knew about it, but that doesn't mean that the fan base did although their fickle fans would expect WH to keep on spending.

aliwibble

This is just softening the fans up for lots of player sales isn't it? They can't force the players to accept contracts on lower wages, so they either sell them before their contracts expire to make sure they get a fee for them and save on the wage bill , or release them when they do and cite their unreasonable wage demands as the reason for letting them go.

Bournemouth Addick

I actually think it's very clever. By coming out and saying that some, non playing, members of staff have already volunteered for a pay cut it turns the heat up on the ones at the club who can most afford to take a drop, the players. They won't of course, but when the fans are baying for new signings in the summer the Board have already got their excuses in.

Dave Rudd

[cite]Posted By: Bournemouth Addick[/cite]I actually think it's very clever. By coming out and saying that some, non playing, members of staff have already volunteered for a pay cut it turns the heat up on the ones at the club who can most afford to take a drop, the players. They won't of course, but when the fans are baying for new signings in the summer the Board have already got their excuses in.

Clever or not (and I do think one or two of you are giving these guys more credit than they might deserve), is this the kind of approach, and are these the kind of characters we would have wanted in charge of our club?

Henry Irving

in a word yes

carly burn

If he was spouting of to the employees of say,his dildo factory,then all very well.Take a cut,keep our heads above water,so on and so forth.But to premier league footballers.Hilarious!

I can hear the likes of spotty and Upson clearing out their lockers as we speak.

Goonerhater

shows you the kak Pompey are in tho. They where saying parker etc are on £65,000 yet some numpty at Pompey (Utarka !!! aint that an otter?) is on £85,000 and he isnt good enough to shine Parkers boots

bigstemarra

Pompey look pretty fooked at the moment....

Redvalleyeast

Wonder if they are now thinking,even just a tiny little bit,"perhaps we shouldve bought that little club over yonder in SE7". Fans or not,they have bought into a very big mess!

ShootersHillGuru

Little doubt that WHU and its fans are in for some nasty tasting medicine but I suspect that from now on the club will be run in a financially responsible manner which in the long term can only be good for the club. A few years of realism might go a long way to securing WHU long term future. Sounds good to me. Would I have welcomed their money and business sense at Charlton ? Like Henry "in a word yes"