What surprised me most was Spurs offered to take over the site, build a demolish the 'iconic' stadium and build a purpose built football stadium funded entirely by them.
How on earth did the LLDC turn down that offer, which would have completely removed the white elephant and future expenditure over the next 99 years.
The original Spurs offer included redeveloping the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace. I understand that the LLDC turned that down on the premise that athletics needed to be part of the solution at the OS.
If I remember rightly West Ham originally agreed to let the OS without the movable track/stand solution.
That's my recollection - but of course as soon as the Spurs bid was discounted on that specific technical detail, there was only one candidate - not that the LLDC weren't bending over for them already.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
The people Gold/Sullivan negotiated the deal with, there are two sides in every negotiation - in this one one of the parties is answerable to the taxpayers of this nation and it isn't Gold & Sullivan.
CAST is certainly making it clear that our beef is with the officials and politicians, and not West Ham. However as individuals we may certainly have questions about the donations to the Tory party of Gullivan, and the preposterous appointment of Brady to the House of Lords. Small business champion? She's never opened and run a small business in her life! Worked for Gullivan since she was 23.
As for what next, we are now in position to start to lobby politicians. We will obviously let people know if we want o start a mass lobby. We are also going to push hard for full release of the contract. When we were at the Summit we heard from another club's trust who had a verbal briefing that there is stuff in there we have not seen which is absolute dynamite.
I have not yet seen any coherent rebuttal of the overheads claim, has anyone else? So that's clear, then.
Our latest press release is here. We already had two enquiries from serious jounros at the Times and Telegraph, while the Mail's award-winning (for the Steven Lawrence work) journalist Stephen Wright was in touch earlier this week but is now on holiday.
As for nothing happening but tut-tutting..we will see about that. Who, when this thread started, believed we would within a year see such a programme on the BBC? Not even me, I must confess.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
The people Gold/Sullivan negotiated the deal with, there are two sides in every negotiation - in this one one of the parties is answerable to the taxpayers of this nation and it isn't Gold & Sullivan.
It goes without saying that the Government officials are to blame as well ( they are Tories so what would you expect ) but i'm saying West Ham are not blameless as others have said.
As for nothing happening but tut-tutting..we will see about that. Who, when this thread started, believed we would within a year see such a programme on the BBC? Not even me, I must confess.
To be honest, when the thread "BBC Special on the Olympic Stadium This Thursday" started, I did expect such a programme to appear on the BBC within a year. ;-)
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
The people Gold/Sullivan negotiated the deal with, there are two sides in every negotiation - in this one one of the parties is answerable to the taxpayers of this nation and it isn't Gold & Sullivan.
It goes without saying that the Government officials are to blame as well ( they are Tories so what would you expect ) but i'm saying West Ham are not blameless as others have said.
I'm not sure that it does go without saying, we should say it loudly and often.
What would you have had West Ham do ? Say "sorry guys, this deals way too good, let us pay you more" ? I know where any blame squarely lies and it doesn't make me a "closet Hammer" to say it.
As for nothing happening but tut-tutting..we will see about that. Who, when this thread started, believed we would within a year see such a programme on the BBC? Not even me, I must confess.
To be honest, when the thread "BBC Special on the Olympic Stadium This Thursday" started, I did expect such a programme to appear on the BBC within a year. ;-)
Well done on all the work so far.
Doh!!! I meant the other thread, of course. 38 C here right now, that's my excuse
What surprised me most was Spurs offered to take over the site, build a demolish the 'iconic' stadium and build a purpose built football stadium funded entirely by them.
How on earth did the LLDC turn down that offer, which would have completely removed the white elephant and future expenditure over the next 99 years.
And build an athletics stadium which would have continued the legacy to boot. For a party that seems so hell bent on saving public money it doesn't really add up. Maybe the Spurs offer would have been more attractive if it involved sacking a lot of people!
What surprised me most was Spurs offered to take over the site, build a demolish the 'iconic' stadium and build a purpose built football stadium funded entirely by them.
How on earth did the LLDC turn down that offer, which would have completely removed the white elephant and future expenditure over the next 99 years.
because the Olympic Stadium was meant to provide a legacy, a legacy for the country. Now it's provided a legacy to West Ham, but at a substantial cost to us. However, imagine the outrage if it had been demolished ...
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
Oh pleeeese. It's a multi billion pound industry and Sullivan and Gold are business sharks. They earned their money legitimately and honestly and regardless of what we each think of big rubber whatever's they have done nothing illegal in their business dealings. That includes getting the best deal for their bank balances and for their shares in WHU.
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
I think the big obstacle is the EU and all this publicity won't be missed by them. It is true that you can't blame West Ham for getting a good deal - if it was achieved without favour - but you can expose the fact that the deal they are getting is off the back of the tax payers. If somebody wants to build me a bigger house - rent it to me for 99 years and charge me less than my current expenses to live there, I'll have some of that. And let me sell my old house and keep over 80% of the money it makes too. Any offers? West Ham don't own the stadium, but there are numerous examples of clubs who don't own stadiums having to pay significantly more in rent. This is a truly terrible deal for the tax payers given there were options that were far better!!! I hope it wasn't agreed over cocktails at a party function!!!!
So what do we do next? Ask for our Olympic council tax levy to be repaid if they fail to publish the full details of the contract?
But what exactly would it need for complete disclosure ? It looks to me as if Sullivan and Golds lawyers ran rings around the officials and legal teams of the Mayor of London, Newham Council and the LDDC. Commercially sensitive seems to relate to pretty much the entire deal.
I hope the EU can get involved (sorry Len) because without that sort of leverage I doubt there is any will by the authorities here to rake over the ashes of this.
It's an absolute scandal and the knobs are doing all they can to make sure the plebs don't get to see the scale of the fuckup.
The programme hinted that complaints to the EU had not been followed up because they were from individuals and it would take a complaint from a football club to secure an investigation. Well I doubt Charlton or Spurs are in the mood so that leave Orient. Why are they not pursuing this line ?
I think the big obstacle is the EU and all this publicity won't be missed by them. It is true that you can't blame West Ham for getting a good deal - if it was achieved without favour - but you can expose the fact that the deal they are getting is off the back of the tax payers. Yes they don't own the stadium, but there are numerous examples of clubs who don't own stadiums having to pay significantly more in rent. This is a truly terrible deal for the tax payers given there were options that were far better!!! I hope it wasn't agreed over cocktails at a party function!!!!
more likely to be over a dildo at an orgy given the parties involed
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
Oh pleeeese. It's a multi billion pound industry and Sullivan and Gold are business sharks. They earned their money legitimately and honestly and regardless of what we each think of big rubber whatever's they have done nothing illegal in their business dealings. That includes getting the best deal for their bank balances and for their shares in WHU.
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
I actually said they have not done anything illegal, i guess you missed that, i just hate this attitude of, if it makes good business or financial sense then its okay, you can't blame them for doing what is best for them over the regular people some of which are even fellow fans of the club they claim to love.
Simply put they knew what they are doing and are no better then a mugger hiding away in some back street IMO, they have willfully stolen from the pocket of every taxpayer, at least the mugger is honest about their actions.
I am not saying they have committed a crime by our laws but they should not be forgotten and i hope when all of this does come to light, those three share fully in the media & public criticism over this shameful business, although i know we are meant to like Brady because she occasionally says something witty on the middle class version of Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
Oh pleeeese. It's a multi billion pound industry and Sullivan and Gold are business sharks. They earned their money legitimately and honestly and regardless of what we each think of big rubber whatever's they have done nothing illegal in their business dealings. That includes getting the best deal for their bank balances and for their shares in WHU.
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
I'm sure their donations to the Tory party wouldn't have harmed their negotiations with Government.
So what do we do next? Ask for our Olympic council tax levy to be repaid if they fail to publish the full details of the contract?
But what exactly would it need for complete disclosure ? It looks to me as if Sullivan and Golds lawyers ran rings around the officials and legal teams of the Mayor of London, Newham Council and the LDDC. Commercially sensitive seems to relate to pretty much the entire deal.
I hope the EU can get involved (sorry Len) because without that sort of leverage I doubt there is any will by the authorities here to rake over the ashes of this.
It's an absolute scandal and the knobs are doing all they can to make sure the plebs don't get to see the scale of the fuckup.
The programme hinted that complaints to the EU had not been followed up because they were from individuals and it would take a complaint from a football club to secure an investigation. Well I doubt Charlton or Spurs are in the mood so that leave Orient. Why are they not pursuing this line ?
Re "commercial confidentiality" and FOI you can read here (download from link) our submission to the Information Commissioner that in this case the excuse is a load of bollocks. The LLDC, guided by West Ham, have claimed that if other clubs had the contract they could use it to leverage an advantage over West Ham in issues such as transfer dealings. Sounds plausible doesn't it, if you are not into football. But if you are you realise that all the contract tells, lets say Sunderland, that West Ham are much richer than they are. Well they guessed that anyway, but there is nothing Sunderland can do when bidding for a player West ham might be interested in, or be selling. Either Sunderland submit a winning bid, or they don't. It is a laughable bogus complaint dreamed up by lawyers. The ICO invited us to submit this, lets see how they use it.
As I think I mentioned a few days ago, I was startled to receive a friendly email from Mishcon de Reya asking for our contact in the European Commission in our State Aid complaint (also downloadable from the Trust website). Katrien told us that they contacted her too, and are apparently working for both Orient and Spurs. They may just be in "reconnaissance" mode at present, but if they move, it will be a big move. Mishcon de Reya don't get out of bed in the morning for what you and I earn in a year :-)
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
Oh pleeeese. It's a multi billion pound industry and Sullivan and Gold are business sharks. They earned their money legitimately and honestly and regardless of what we each think of big rubber whatever's they have done nothing illegal in their business dealings. That includes getting the best deal for their bank balances and for their shares in WHU.
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
I'm sure their donations to the Tory party wouldn't have harmed their negotiations with Government.
Well without getting into party politics point scoring I think this debacle is more to do with complete and utter business naivety and incompetence than greasing palms which would of course be illegal.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometime get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
I hope they crash and burn off the back of this but it really is not West Hams owners fault. They of course want the best deal for the club and for themselves. The fact that they were negotiating with a buffoon and a team of idiots is their good luck. If it eventually transpires that commercial support was illegally given then the pigeons will come home to roost.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
Not sure i agree, sure it is within their right to get the best deal they could but Gold, Sullivan and Brady all know this deal is a complete steal that will boost their personal finances at the struggling tax payers expense, they may have not done anything illegal but lets not shy away from the fact this is morally wrong which should not be forgotten IMO.
Oh pleeeese. It's a multi billion pound industry and Sullivan and Gold are business sharks. They earned their money legitimately and honestly and regardless of what we each think of big rubber whatever's they have done nothing illegal in their business dealings. That includes getting the best deal for their bank balances and for their shares in WHU.
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
I'm sure their donations to the Tory party wouldn't have harmed their negotiations with Government.
Well without getting into party politics point scoring I think this debacle is more to do with complete and utter business naivety and incompetence than greasing palms which would of course be illegal.
Favours can be given without a direct payment. Boris can have drinks with his mates at a function/agree to help then say at the relevant meetings - lets not be messing about here etc... West Ham is the only choice etc... But that would be hard to prove I imagine - But their are EU competition laws that may be being breached. All this publicity will make it harder for LLDC to sweep under the carpet.
I keep seeing " it's not West Hams fault" or " i dont blame West Ham".
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
The people Gold/Sullivan negotiated the deal with, there are two sides in every negotiation - in this one one of the parties is answerable to the taxpayers of this nation and it isn't Gold & Sullivan.
It goes without saying that the Government officials are to blame as well ( they are Tories so what would you expect ) but i'm saying West Ham are not blameless as others have said.
I'm not sure that it does go without saying, we should say it loudly and often.
What would you have had West Ham do ? Say "sorry guys, this deals way too good, let us pay you more" ? I know where any blame squarely lies and it doesn't make me a "closet Hammer" to say it.
I would imagine they thought that none of this would even come out, or if it did it wouldn't look bad on them (the owners), after all it was a commercial contract with the government. I guess the fact that it's in essence a commercial contract with the government funded by the taxpayer which is the problem. Do/should they have shown more foresight? What are the deals with companies that supply the NHS say? Do they have to be a bit more clued up from a PR/ethical perspective than they would in the private sector.
As far as my understanding goes unless a term is breached in a private sector contract, everyone is a big boy and should enter into an agreement with their eyes open. There's very little sympathy in the world of business as both parties know the score.
West Ham knew the score (a bloody good one), does that mean there is an extra duty of care based on the fact it's public money.
As an idealist I do have issue with the hammers' owners knowing they got such a good deal using PUBLIC money. Others will not blame them based on the fact that's what was offered to them. Of course whoever structured this on behalf of the authorities has screwed up, but my personal stance is that West Ham have spotted the opportunity and exploited it when they should've had a bit more consideration for the wider issues.
I dont think West ham care one iota what people may think of them over this, unless spurs make a formal complaint I can't see it going anywhere,
I reckon we wouldn't say anything and in return we will see West hame fringe players coming our way
They will offer orient a tie up like Swindon had with spurs, loads of their younger players will end up there on long term loans
The only ones who won't benefit from any form of player link ups will be spurs so if they don't put something into that European Court then I can't see anything happening about it
Interesting watch, i am simply stunned that West Ham will not even be paying for all the football related costs like policing on match days, goalposts etc, hopefully we do no have to wait long for one or more clubs to make that complaint whether it is us, Orient, Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City or even another club from Europe, lets hope it happens soon so we can see some sort of justice for every tax payer over this shameful mess.
Once again, well done to everyone from our trust involved in this, makes me proud to have been a member from almost the start, keep up the great work its appreciated.
Final note, can't help but have sympathy for those long term West Ham fans who are watching their club & its soul stolen from them in such a blatant money grab by two owners who claim love for the club, its sickening.
Don't see why we should have sympathy for West Ham fans. It's not like they've been protesting about it, is it? They are probably smirking over it.
Comments
Well Gold and Sullivan are West Ham's owners therefore they are West Ham and they negotiated the deal so who's bloody fault is it then!!! I sometimes get the feeling certain people are closet hammers.
Perhaps what you should be saying is it's not West Hams supporters fault which is entirely different.
All our anger should be directed at the officials that allowed this shafting to happen.
As for what next, we are now in position to start to lobby politicians. We will obviously let people know if we want o start a mass lobby. We are also going to push hard for full release of the contract. When we were at the Summit we heard from another club's trust who had a verbal briefing that there is stuff in there we have not seen which is absolute dynamite.
I have not yet seen any coherent rebuttal of the overheads claim, has anyone else? So that's clear, then.
Our latest press release is here. We already had two enquiries from serious jounros at the Times and Telegraph, while the Mail's award-winning (for the Steven Lawrence work) journalist Stephen Wright was in touch earlier this week but is now on holiday.
As for nothing happening but tut-tutting..we will see about that. Who, when this thread started, believed we would within a year see such a programme on the BBC? Not even me, I must confess.
Well done on all the work so far.
What would you have had West Ham do ? Say "sorry guys, this deals way too good, let us pay you more" ? I know where any blame squarely lies and it doesn't make me a "closet Hammer" to say it.
cuntspeople in charge at westham have definitely abused they political connections when negotiating their deal.Is that illegal? not sure I know enough about the negotiations to say anything other than NO
would I be bothered if Charlton were financially benefiting under similar circumstances? NOPE!!!
Morals are nowhere near the equation here. What is though is the crass stupidity of our officials in allowing a deal like this to happen.
Ask for our Olympic council tax levy to be repaid if they fail to publish the full details of the contract?
I hope the EU can get involved (sorry Len) because without that sort of leverage I doubt there is any will by the authorities here to rake over the ashes of this.
It's an absolute scandal and the knobs are doing all they can to make sure the plebs don't get to see the scale of the fuckup.
The programme hinted that complaints to the EU had not been followed up because they were from individuals and it would take a complaint from a football club to secure an investigation. Well I doubt Charlton or Spurs are in the mood so that leave Orient. Why are they not pursuing this line ?
Simply put they knew what they are doing and are no better then a mugger hiding away in some back street IMO, they have willfully stolen from the pocket of every taxpayer, at least the mugger is honest about their actions.
I am not saying they have committed a crime by our laws but they should not be forgotten and i hope when all of this does come to light, those three share fully in the media & public criticism over this shameful business, although i know we are meant to like Brady because she occasionally says something witty on the middle class version of Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
As I think I mentioned a few days ago, I was startled to receive a friendly email from Mishcon de Reya asking for our contact in the European Commission in our State Aid complaint (also downloadable from the Trust website). Katrien told us that they contacted her too, and are apparently working for both Orient and Spurs. They may just be in "reconnaissance" mode at present, but if they move, it will be a big move. Mishcon de Reya don't get out of bed in the morning for what you and I earn in a year :-)
As far as my understanding goes unless a term is breached in a private sector contract, everyone is a big boy and should enter into an agreement with their eyes open. There's very little sympathy in the world of business as both parties know the score.
West Ham knew the score (a bloody good one), does that mean there is an extra duty of care based on the fact it's public money.
As an idealist I do have issue with the hammers' owners knowing they got such a good deal using PUBLIC money. Others will not blame them based on the fact that's what was offered to them. Of course whoever structured this on behalf of the authorities has screwed up, but my personal stance is that West Ham have spotted the opportunity and exploited it when they should've had a bit more consideration for the wider issues.
Others will see it differently on the bare facts
I reckon we wouldn't say anything and in return we will see West hame fringe players coming our way
They will offer orient a tie up like Swindon had with spurs, loads of their younger players will end up there on long term loans
The only ones who won't benefit from any form of player link ups will be spurs so if they don't put something into that European Court then I can't see anything happening about it