West Ham are basically a template example of what happens when you get recruitment wrong too many years in a row. The way that they used the Rice & Kudus fees (£160m) is what decided their fate. 2 or 3 good buys (Fernandes, Summerville, Diouf) is not enough especially when you recruit so poorly at CB and striker. Amateurly-ran clubs will get found out in the modern Premier League. West Ham need a change of ownership or else it will be the same story, even if they do get promoted next season.
This is one of the hardest days of my football career.
I’m devastated for our fans, for everyone at the club and for what this means after 7 years in the club and in the Premier League.
You deserved better from us.
Thank you for standing with us even in the toughest moments.
I truly believe the West Ham family will stay united and loyal through this difficult time, just as you always have.
Now it’s on us to respond the right way, work harder than ever and fight to bring West Ham back where it belongs.
“World-class team in a world-class stadium?” Second-tier team in a track-and-field stadium. West Ham United relegated to the Championship at the London Stadium. Fans have every right to be angry. They turned up. But where was the real leadership in the club? Or on the pitch in recent times (Bowen apart)? No urgency in the first half against Leeds. Taty and Bowen gave brief hope. But they couldn’t rise to the equation. Spurs survive.
Many reasons for West Ham’s demise: some iffy recruitment, some below-par coach appointments (Lopetegui, Potter), defensive issues, lack of direction from board, tensions between fans and Sullivan, as well as an unsuitable stadium (fans far from pitch, rental so difficult to generate money). Record losses. And revenue will be hammered by the drop.
Who gets sold? Fernandes and Summerville will be top of many clubs’ shopping list. And the loyal Bowen? Does Nuno stay? Will the fanbase want him to? Does Kretinsky make a move to take over? Would Sullivan sell anyway? So many questions. Who can provide the answers? Who will stand up to be counted?
West Ham need a reset, a rethink, improved recruitment and better leadership - on and off the pitch. Their fans deserve better. #WHULEE #WHU
West Ham United’s impending relegation is the result of years of mismanagement and slow decline. The patchwork football club, in the 60k makeshift stadium overtaken by dozens of better run, historically smaller clubs with barely half that.
Run with idiotic, short term thinking, by a chairman who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Loyal fans cast aside and treated with total disdain. No plan off the pitch, a confused mess on it, born from a total lack of professionalism and planning.
Fighting relegation most seasons, despite regularly spending hundreds of millions (via payday loans) on old players recommended by the owners’ mates. A few memorable seasons with David Moyes papering over the huge cracks in the poorly hidden running track.
A decade after we left the Boleyn Ground, WHU has never felt more lost. You’ll see few highlight reels from the club for the upcoming anniversary: for the most part, it’s been a torrid decade in the bowl.
If relegation rids us of Sullivan, so be it. But with 100m of debt (how?) and double that owed in player purchases, it could be a long, long time before we’re at this level again. We’re about to find out just how many clubs we’ve fallen behind.
#whufc #NomoreBS