Written by @farehamhammer

The lies and Spin will never change. Some eight years ago myself and Enfield Hammer warned what to expect from Gold and Sullivan, the self-styled ‘Messiahs’. Or as they would like to have it, ‘saviours’ of our Club. They rode into The Club as virtual knights in shining armour! Due to The Debt the Club was in it made no business sense to buy The Club they said, they only brought us because they were fans. They went into great detail of how bad the debt was, over 100million and to make matters worse we were mortgaged to the hilt. Loans had been taken out against the next two season’s season ticket money. If they had not come in and ‘saved’ us we faced financial Armageddon, at the very least we faced administration at worst we could have gone bust. R.I.P!  West Ham United! They then turned their attention to the players we had at The Club: “Weak and unbalanced”. Was the most sombre verdict from our ‘knights’ in shining armour. They would be taking NOTHING out of The Club and paying Karren Brady’s salary themselves. Investment? God if it were not for Gold and Sullivan we would not have a bloody Club! Was, the word on the street from West Ham fans everywhere! Mission accomplished: Lower fan expectation.

Like a candidate running for President of The United States of America on the campaign trail, repeatedly the level of debt got played out in the media. We were even told that Mrs Brady went around and switched off the lights at The Boleyn, as regards to manipulating the media, few can master Gold and Sullivan. They are the kings of spin, they leak different stories to different people. They have spun poor old Darren Lewis like a spinning top this week regards Andy Carroll. I believe they wanted to sell him, as they needed the money for down payments for transfers. Carroll was stitched up making him look like a villain, all fell apart when Carroll was once again injured.

They have run West Ham in exactly the same fashion as Birmingham City. Every season ticket renewal time all sorts of top names are leaked, and as you know now they don’t happen. Still I think the all-time classic was the gem while at St Andrews, they leaked the story that Diego Maradona (Yes Maradona!) was closing in on a move to St Andrews. Of course, when the media contacted Maradona, who was playing for Sevilla at the time, he said he had never heard of them. Surprise surprise. One ‘marquee’ signing, a second one costing some money, the rest freebies, cheapies and loan after loan that is how this mob roll! On that basis there was no chance they were going to sign William Carvalho, they got rudely exposed for the Carvalho ‘phantom’ bid, but phantom ‘bids’ has been a way of life for the ‘Messiahs’ for some twenty-five years. These boys are that tight they can peel an orange in their pocket. Money, money and more money is what matters most to the ‘Messiahs’. The move from The Boleyn was all about greed, I am convinced they are involved in the property development The Upton Gardens, that will be in place of The Boleyn Ground. Selling the Boleyn for virtual peanuts does not sound right to me.

Many will never forgive them for selling The Boleyn Ground on premise of taking The Club to the ‘next’ level, by bringing in “three or four” top signings. Which has proven to be a load of crap! Yes, the ‘Messiahs’ are certainly tricky customers indeed, but I don’t buy into the theory that they don’t know how to run a football club or destroy are out to destroy The Club. You certainly don’t go out and spend £24 million on the likes of Marko Arnautovic if you are planning to destroy The Club for starters. I would argue that they know EXACTLY what they are doing. Many have said the derogatory remarks regards, Jose Fonte and Robert Snodgrass, by Brady and Sullivan were gaffes. Not at all! Both players are on a tidy whack and have not lived up to expectations, they want them off the wage bill as quick as possible, and have gone out of their way to make them uncomfortable. They most certainly don’t want them sitting around The Club being paid around about £150,000 and not playing. Yes, it is crass, but football has prostituted its soul for Sky Money a long time ago. I don’t feel sorry for Fonte and Snodgrass either. Why should any fan? If anyone had come in and offered more dough to Fonte or Snodgrass, they would have demanded a move and been off.

They also like the try before they buy method of signing a player. Almost like taking a car on a test drive before you buy it. They pay an expensive loan fee agree a fixed fee for a player if the player is successful. A method which they used to get Lanzini. It was also a method that they used to bring Tore and Zaza to The Club. Both players were flops and were sent back. Saving the Club some 32million, which The Club would have had to pay, if they had purchased the players outright. The down side of this is, that some Clubs won’t do business with you. There has been much criticism that about Sullivan’s role of ‘Director’ of Football. In the ideal world would have been solely down to manager. But too many Clubs have been ripped off by a combination of managers and agent. So, the ideal situation would have been, the manager and Board working in tandem to bring players in.

Reality in most cases is totally different sadly eight years on and there most certainly is no Champions League in sight, but on the pitch, itself we are in far better shape than we were back then. We have a decent side but not a strong squad. We are about four quality additions from being a very good side. The window has been very quiet all round only Liverpool have spent some serious dough. The money should have been spent in the summer, signing Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic and getting rid of ten players to do so, has left us paper thin and as David Moyes said we desperately need a couple of midfielders. I think we will get a couple of loans in and no more. Yes, it is tight arsed as usual…. but there may be more to it than that. I would not at all be surprised if David Moyes is history in the summer, and Rafa Benítez is installed as manager of West Ham United. Not that I think that Moyes is a bad manager, it is just that deep down one senses Benítez is the manager they really want. Who knows? They may have already sent Rafa a copy of The Rise and fall of the Kray’s. Let’s face it with the ‘Messiahs’ in charge anything could happen. As we speak. I have JUST HEARD… Sullivan is closing in on Messi! He has offered Barcelona 900 MILLION… in staggered payments of a fiver over 1000 billion years. Yes, it’s been far from perfect over these last eight years, but things could have been far worse. PLEASE Mr Chairman cut the constant lies and spin!

We are more than a football Club, we’re a way of life!

Farehamhammer!!