Forget candidates, does anyone actually want to manage West Ham?
Don’t get me wrong, the efforts of West Ham’s new owners, David Gold and David Sullivan, to stabilise the finances at Upton Park is great for the club. But with all their background interference in the clubs on field affairs since the pair joined in January, would any manager worth their corn really want to move to Upton Park?
Gianfranco Zola, despite doing a fairly good job at West Ham, clearly wasn’t part of their plans. Now, I’ve got no problem with this in principle, new owners deserve the right to bring in their own man. Particularly as Zola and assistant Steve Clarke – through no fault of their own were on astronomical wages.
But why all the mid-season interferences? Gold and Sullivan were being honest, which is a lost trait in football ownership at the top level, but when the ship looks like it might be sinking, there’s no need to make the hole any bigger.
Firstly it was signing Mido and Benni McCarthy – two awful footballers. McCarthy’s so far over the hill he can’t even see the peak any more, and Mido – as admirable as his alleged £1,000-a-week base rate contract was in a league of hyper-inflated wages - isn’t cut out for Premiership football.
Then there was announcing proposed savage pay cuts across the board at the end of the season. Talk about kicking a team while they’re down. Again, another admirable move that was announced at totally the wrong time.
But Sullivan really took things to far after the 3-1 defeat to Wolves in March. In an open letter to the fans on the clubs website, he slammed the teams “pathetic” performance and expected a “dramatic” improvement. It was what every fan was thinking, but Sullivan was the only one stupid brave enough to say it.
I’ve got great respect for what West Ham were, and what they could be. And despite what I’ve said, I’ve got great admiration for the owners breaking the all too common silence at top level football management.
But West Ham can count themselves lucky that (along with Bolton, Wolves and Wigan) there were 3 teams worse than them in the Premier League this season. In the sense of trying to save the Hammers’ top flight status, Gold & Sullivan did very little help.
Today the pair announced a 10-point pledge going to get the club moving forward. Nothing alarming in there. “Appointing the right manager” (don’t expect any Christmas cards Gianfranco), sign new players and continuing to clear the debt are three big musts for the club moving forward.
Most intriguing is the clubs plan to move to the Olympic Stadium. A bold plan, from a pair whom we should expect nothing less.
Bob Bamber
