More Nastiness/Pettyness From West Ham

[Macmoish]

Guardian/Digger - Matt Scott
West Ham anger fans revoking Lyall and Greenwood families' privileges
• Lyall and Greenwood families have season tickets taken away
• West Ham failed to give any prior notice of their decision

West Ham United have sparked anger among their fans by taking away privileges from the families of John Lyall and Ron Greenwood without notice. The late managers are East End royalty, having been responsible for the only meaningful trophies West Ham have won in their 115-year history.

That was recognised last year when the main gates to Upton Park were renamed in Lyall's honour and a Greenwood and Lyall Lounge was opened. Both families had received complimentary directors' box tickets but, following the takeover by David Sullivan and David Gold - who have made great play of their credentials as West Ham fans – last season, that privilege was downgraded to a pair of season tickets.

The families only learned that these too had been taken away when calling the club in early August to ask what the arrangements would be for the new season. "I fully appreciate the financial plight of the club and can understand the reasoning why the season tickets have been withdrawn," said Lyall's son, Murray. "But what I do find unacceptable is that no one in authority had the decency to contact us and explain in person."

Lyall's widow, Yvonne, added: "After my husband's 34 years' loyal service to the club in a playing, coaching and managerial capacity, I feel my family should have been shown greater respect and understanding given our tragic loss four years ago and the legacy he left behind."

It has "appalled" Amanda Jacks, a lifelong Hammers fan, who said: "West Ham trade as a family club but no supporter would treat their family this way. The strength of feeling from the West Ham support will only demonstrate what an ill-considered decision this is."

Portsmouth's paperwork
The transfer of Portsmouth's Football League share to a company said to be controlled by Balram Chainrai was not rubber-stamped by the League's board yesterday. And so the club remain in administration, which is not the outcome anyone would have expected when the administrator, Andrew Andronikou, was talking about "blue sky ahead" and how the club would soon be "out of the clutches of the Football League".

It is believed there was insufficient paperwork for the League to ratify the club's takeover by PFC Realisations. If so, it would not be the first time Pompey have had a problem with their paperwork this week, with Liam Lawrence's loan from Stoke City to Fratton Park also held up over late filing of documents.

"From our end, all documentation was sent on time, well before the 6pm deadline," Andronikou said. "I was there myself to see it." According to what Digger has heard, from the League's end it did not arrive until after 8pm. Who to believe?

Friends in high places

Aston Villa fans may be underwhelmed by the arrival of Gérard Houllier in the Second City but his appointment can have done the club no harm in the eyes of Uefa. The former Liverpool manager has served as a technical assessor for the European football body and has a close relationship with its president, Michel Platini. Indeed, he was having dinner with Platini when the latter was taken ill at the World Cup in South Africa. Indeed it is believed he even accompanied Platini to hospital. With Platini widely expected to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa's president in a few years, it surely cannot hurt Villa to have friends in such high places.

West Brom Kick It Out
West Bromwich Albion supporters have teamed up with the anti-racism campaign Kick It Out to create banners hitting back at Lokomotiv Moscow fans who directed a banana jibe at the Nigeria international, Peter Odemwingie, when he left to join the Baggies. One has a picture of Odemwingie celebrating his winner against Sunderland last month with the words "Thanks Lokomotiv". The other, with pictures of Lawurie Cunningham, Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson – the club famously broke new ground by fielding three such influential black players – as well as Odemwingie, states: "The only colours here are blue and white."

Redknapp court hearing
Harry Redknapp faces a court hearing over alleged tax evasion within 24 hours of his club's home Champions League tie against Werder Bremen. A scheduled hearing involving lawyers for Redknapp, Peter Storrie and Milan Mandaric – who deny charges of tax evasion – was due at Southwark Crown Court next week but has been postponed after legal teams requested more time. It will now take place on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 November, meaning it begins the day after the Bundesliga side travel to White Hart Lane. Southwark Crown Court's diary clearly does not pay too much heed to Redknapp's football commitments. Next week's scheduled hearing would in any case have clashed with his club's trip to Werder Bremen.

www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/10/west-ham-lyall-greenwood

[Macmoish]

And if West Ham axe Grant, will just add to their nastiness....

Definitely not the West Ham of old

[Lonegunmen]

What next? Remove the Bobby Moore association with the club too? Wet spam have gone from a family club that played attractive football in the 60's & 70's to what it is now and tnhe reckon our decline has been sad??

[Macmoish]

The axing managers - well we can hardly talk! But the tickets for Lyall and Greenwood...and some of the other stuff.


Independent - Grant: I had more money to spend at Portsmouth than West Ham

Manager under pressure as he faces old side Chelsea hoping to avoid his club's worst ever start to a season

By Mark Fleming

No points, no money. It is becoming a recurring theme for Avram Grant, who oversaw Portsmouth's demise as a Premier League club and is now trying to ensure he does not do the same thing at West Ham United.


So far, it has not gone well. Grant's men have lost 3-0 away to managerless Aston Villa, 3-1 at home to Bolton Wanderers and 3-0 away to Manchester United, a record of no points, one goal, and nine conceded. Bottom of the table, looking up at the rest of the division, a familiar view for the softly-spoken former Israel national team coach.

The last team to start a Premier League season with three straight defeats was Portsmouth 12 months ago, and Grant does not need reminding how that ended up. To make matters worse Grant welcomes his other former club Chelsea today, who are playing with all the swagger you might expect of Double-winners. Lose today, and it will be the worst start in the Hammers' long history.

The financial situation at West Ham is nowhere near as bad as it was at Portsmouth, but Grant admitted yesterday he had not been given as much money as he had been led to believe. In fact, he said he had more money for players at Portsmouth.

Grant said: "The financial situation [at West Ham], I knew it before. I thought that we can spend maybe more, but we know the situation. At Portsmouth I had more money to spend, maybe £5m even £6m. But here we couldn't do it."

Grant is finding it tougher than he expected. He took over as Gianfranco Zola's successor in the summer in the belief that there would be a major overhaul of the playing squad with everyone except Scott Parker put up for sale and money made available for a few new, young faces. Instead he has only been able to tinker at the fringes of the squad while only four players have been shipped out. "It's not a secret that we wanted to do more things but also we need to remember that the financial situation is a problem," Grant said. "I think we know the situation before. More or less."

He admitted finding it hard to see the millions spent by the likes of Stoke City, Sunderland and Birmingham City this summer. "I'll be honest and I can tell you that I wish I had the same money that they had. I think with this money we could do a lot and we could improve a lot the team. But the situation is that we could not afford it here, so this is the situation and I cannot do nothing about this," he said.

Friends say Grant will not be bothered by the recent rumours that he is fighting to keep his job already. Not so long ago West Ham used to be synonymous with stability. Five full-time managers in the first 94 years of the club demonstrated a remarkable level of loyalty and consistency.

That, like pretty much everything else in football, has all changed in the past decade. Grant is the sixth manager since 2001, and the seventh may not be too far away if he cannot turn around results pretty quickly, although the club's co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan do have a history of sticking by their managers, despite their treatment of Zola last season.

Grant's uneviable task is made all the harder by the outspoken tendencies of the aforementioned Gold and Sullivan. The latter was in full flow last weekend, with an attack on several of the foreign players at Upton Park, claiming they "couldn't be bothered".

Sullivan was not naming names, but the likes of Radoslav Kovac, Julien Faubert, Herita Ilunga, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami and Jonathan Spector might have felt their ears burning. What's more, all eight of the new signings made by West Ham this past summer, none of them big names for big money, are foreigners.

"It doesn't help me and it doesn't bother me. He's the chairman and if he wants to do something he can do it, as long as it doesn't hurt the team. And I don't think he hurt the team, for the moment," Grant said.

Grant may give debuts to new recruits Victor Obinna and Lars Jacobsen today, while Behrami could get his first game of the season in what will surely be a damage limitation exercise.

Bookies were yesterday offering odds of 10-1 on a West Ham victory today. One thing in the Hammers' favour is that Grant has shown in the past he is at his best when the odds are stacked against him.

www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/grant-i-had-more-money-to-spend-at-portsmouth-than-west-ham-2076256.html

[Macmoish]

Poor owners of West Ham...Nobody made them buy...And certainly no one made them act as they've done.


News of The World

CLARET AND BOO HOO
Trying to save club has driven my sons to tears

SULLIVAN: Going through agony

By Neil Ashton

DAVID SULLIVAN claims he is at breaking point after revealing West Ham's debts have burst through the £100million barrier.

In a remarkable outburst, the Hammers' stressed-out co-owner claims:

* It will take years to turn West Ham into a Premier League force;

* His children have been in tears over his 18-hour working days as clubs, agents and players make "impossible demands", and he racked up a £2,000 mobile phone bill over eight days in the transfer window;

* An agent demanded £50,000 for arranging a pre-season friendly, while the club only made £11,000 from the Carling Cup tie against Oxford.

Sullivan, who bought a 60 per cent stake in the club with David Gold last season, claims the pair are already at breaking point.

Despite offering Scott Parker a new contract worth £70,000 a week, Sullivan claims the wages cannot be sustained.

The Hammers chief said: "We have brought in eight new players to balance Avram Grant's squad, as well as hanging on to our star names.

"We missed out on a number of targets, mainly due to the impossible demands of players, clubs or agents.

"This was a big factor in why I have been working 16-18 hour days for the last three months.

"On my eight-day family holiday I was talking to players and agents non-stop. So much so that my family were hardly talking to me at the end. My sons were in tears of frustration with me being on the phone rather than spending time with them.

"My mobile phone was £2,000 for eight days and I paid that myself. It is the most difficult task trying to keep the club afloat.

"In line with my partner David Gold neither of us has ever drawn a penny in wages, management fees or even expenses and it is never our intention to do so.

"We have £50m of bank loans and £50m of other debts - it is the most difficult task keeping the club afloat."

The Hammers have been trading at an annual loss of £30m a year for the past four seasons and are still paying the price for the Eggert Magnusson era.

He added: "With the help of our bankers we will keep the club afloat, but please realise it will take years to take West Ham where we want them to be.

"Every day we are being hit with enormous bills run up by the previous regime.


"For example an agent says he is owed £50,000 for arranging a pre-season friendly against Napoli last year on a match that lost the club £70,000.

"The appearance money against Oxford was £45,000 plus £9,000 in win bonuses.

"Our cut of the gate was £65,000, so we ended up making £11,000. No-one can blame the players for accepting over-generous contracts the previous regime offered them."

www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/football/963150/CLARET-AND-BOO-HOO.html

[saphilip]

As you say nobody forced them to buy West Ham - and they certainly don't have any understanding of the history of West Ham.

After what RG & JL did for the club what do they (Gold & Sullivan) possibly hope to gain doing what they did. It is hardly going to make any dent in their debt and all it has done is to alienate themselves even further from fans and ex members alike.

Mond they are hardly alone, after all we did it as well, Paladini & co showing a cold shoulder to formers players like they never existed.