#sullivan – Under The Hammers

West Ham fans of any vintage are well used to the topsy-turvy nature of most football seasons. More turvy than topsy if the truth be told. But at least we used to have the summer break to forget all about it and watch the cricket instead. Nowadays, the close season is filled with almost as much drama, swinging from despair to hope and back again with each news cycle.

Intermittent relegation is a cross we’ve come to bear in east London. We may kid ourselves it shouldn’t happen, that it can never happen again, that we are too big and too rich a club to get things so wrong. But then here we are. Forever cursed with incompetent owners?

Emotions had understandably reached their lowest ebb when relegation was finally confirmed on 24 May. Here was a club with huge debt, expensive credit, plunging revenues, supporting a lopsided squad of overpaid misfits. Turmoil, fire sales, games played in a half empty London stadium, and visions of becoming a second Leicester City were reasonable predictions for the year ahead.

Then a few things happened to slowly lift the gloom. The much-despised David Sullivan resigned to spend more time with his lawyers and following his sidekick Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge out of the door. A joint statement from Daniel Kretinski and Vanessa Gold promised a share transfer deal and a newfound spirit of cooperation that would see the Czech become the club’s largest shareholder. At long last, a specialist director of recruitment had been appointed, and the club had played hard ball in extracting top of the range fees for the sales of Fernandes and Summerville. And loans to Barclay Bank had been paid off, although the more extortionate payday credit from Rights and Media Funding remained in place.

Perhaps things weren’t as bad as we feared after all. The situation was still light on detail. Had West Ham complied with the final year Premier League PSR rules, how would they meet Championship Squad Cost Ratio rules in a world of falling revenues, would the transfer funds received be used to pay off debt or improve the squad?

Regardless, a ray of optimism saw fit to raise its ugly head. And whenever that happens, it’s a sure sign that things are about to come crashing down. And so, it came to pass – and predictably it was a backwards pass! We discovered the boardroom pact was not as harmonious as presented, the pre-season games were a reminder of how one dimensional the football is under the current manager, and despite the gaping holes in the squad, the only new addition has been the permanent signing of Keiber Lamadrid.

Could there be a worse time to be caught in ownership limbo? It is difficult to see it not having knock-on implications in the day to day running of the club. The impasse in the original plan, it seems, were the conflicting desires of Kretinsky and Gold. For reasons unknown (but widely speculated upon), Kretinsky hadn’t wanted to increase his ownership above 50%, and the Gold Family Trust didn’t want to be left holding a small percentage of shares.

It has been suggested that the plan was for Kretinsky to find a separate buyer for the remainder of Gold’s shares but with the passing of time nothing came to fruition. Into this void enter Amanda Staveley and her consortium with an offer for the whole of the Golds shareholding which they saw as too good to refuse. Did Kretinsky fail to follow through or did the Golds renege on the deal. Both claim to be acting in the best interests of West Ham. What to make of it? The malign tentacles of Gold and Sullivan are far from history.

The latest move clearly upset Kretinsky and his desire for stability in the run up to the new season. There must now be a two-month two-round process before anything can be resolved. In round 1, existing shareholders have the right to buy the Gold shares in proportion to their existing holding – Sullivan and Kretinsky could buy 50.8% and 36% of the shares on offer respectively. Other minority shareholders have the same option. In round 2, any unsold shares can be purchased by those buying in round 1.

The general online consensus is that Sullivan is unlikely to be interested in increasing his stake – and he has remained uncharacteristically quiet about his position on the matter. So, everything depends on Kretinsky showing his colours. It will need to be an all or nothing play from him – either doing nothing or buying all the Gold shares to block Staveley’s bid – for now. Until she returns with an eye on Sullivan’s holding.

It has never been obvious what Kretinsky wants. He has been a mostly passive investor with West Ham, just one small part of his immense asset portfolio. The Sullivan situation may have forced his hand to act but possibly only to protect his original investment. Does he have any true appetite to become a majority owner? All we can do now is wait and hope the club does not enter a state of paralysis as the boardroom struggle plays out.

If things in the boardroom are a mess, then the omens on the pitch look no better. It came as a surprise to many when the club decided to persevere with Nuno Espirito Santo after last season’s events. Continuity is fine if what you want is more of the same. True, he was mostly lumbered with the squad he inherited, there was an upturn in form towards the end of the campaign, and he has a previous Championship promotion under his belt. But he wasn’t a late relegation battle arrival. He was appointed in September with plenty of opportunity to make his mark. Is his brand of cautious, counter attacking football really the route to success in the long, hard slog of a Championship season. I see no rationale why West Ham should be among the favourites for the title or automatic promotion.

As yet, nothing has been done to address the squad’s perennial on-field weaknesses: reliable goal-scoring front man; creativity in midfield; energetic defensive midfielder; and fearless central defender – virtually the whole spine of the team. I made the mistake of shelling out a fiver to watch Saturday’s friendly and how toothless was that performance against a side who just about managed to avoid the drop from Bundesliga 2 last season. OK, it was only a friendly, but you would expect to see signs of a team able to take control a game. Instead, it was a reprise of the plodding, unadventurous style that failed to impress in the Premier League.

Listening to players interviewed after games and I get the impression they have no belief either. Platitudes such as “we’re heading in the right direction”, “we need to keep growing as a team” and “we must keep pushing for what we want to achieve” had me checking whether David Brent had been appointed Director of Communications.

I do understand some of the original delay in recruitment while Nils Koppen got his feet under the table but to have done nothing on the eve of the new season is disastrous. Other clubs have shown it is possible to recover from a slow start, but it’s a dangerous game. And far more difficult when you add in an uber cautious coach.

Unfortunately, I’m not on the same page as those who see youth team players stepping up to fill the missing pieces. I love it when a youth team breaks through and am loathe to write any off any individual too quickly. But for a self-styled ‘academy of football’ West Ham have a wretched record of youth development in recent years. Sadly, I’ve yet to be convinced by any of the current crop but will be more than happy to be proved wrong.

The academy might like to think of itself as a production line of talent, but it is turning out identikit graduates where discipline has been drilled in at the expense of flair and risk taking. Players whose first instinct is control, half turn, and short pass. Nothing more. It’s like the way plant breeders eliminated taste from fruit by prioritising appearance. We were perhaps lucky that the only notable academy graduate of the past 15 years got his early footballing education at a completely different club.

What we are left with is players who look elegant but fall short on the other attributes required to make it as a top-level footballer – strength, determination, resilience, stamina, positional sense, awareness, vision, and decision-making. Whether that is peculiar to West Ham or is a wider problem of the rarified academy environment, I don’t know. Are these the skills which were once honed during 20-a-side matches in the street or over the park?

Apart from all that, preparations for the new season look perfect. What could possibly go wrong? COYI!

As former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly once said, “Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better.” If that principle forms part of the DNA around the corridors of Anfield, it remains elusive in the boardroom and on the training ground at West Ham. Simply put, those in control at the London Stadium do not know better and refuse to learn from experience.

The simplicity of football is the foundation of its popularity. As long as you have a ball and jumpers for goalposts you can have a game. The underlying simplicity has remained even if, at the professional level, the surrounding veneer has changed significantly from Bill’s day. Under the influence of TV money, it has slithered down an insidious path from community spectator event to tarted-up and over-hyped media content. Yet looking beyond the tactical constipation, gamesmanship, win probabilities, set piece coaches, VAR reviews and talking points, the basics are the same: gain possession, control, pass, receive, move, create space and attempt to score. If a team of (supposedly) elite footballers in the self-styled ‘best league in the world’ cannot demonstrate those basics, then something is badly amiss.

It’s not that I expected the Hammers to beat Liverpool. The visitors are a smooth, well-oiled outfit who are highly competent across the pitch and possess several outstanding individuals in selected positions. They are probably the best club side in Europe on current form. But as a minimum we have a right to expect our team to compete in games and demonstrate at least the impression of resistance. It was surprising the game remained scoreless as long as the half hour mark. But once the first goal went in, heads dropped, and it became obvious another rout was on the cards. Just as had happened in heavy defeats to Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal.

I’m guessing Julen Lopetegui’s team selection must have made sense to him when it first took shape in his mind. A cunning plan to clip the wings of Mohammed Salah by playing several players out of position to counter his threat. Without such a genius tactical ploy he may have reaped even more havoc than his one goal and two assists suggested. If Mr Lopetegui had found a pair of Marks and Spencer sports socks underneath the Christmas tree, alongside the boxes of Hamlet cigars and Old Spice, he will have noticed they helpfully embroidered ‘L’ and ‘R’ on each of them. Something to remember when it comes to full back selections in the future.

It is understandable that fans direct their frustrations at the performance of individual players, making judgements on whether they are putting in a shift or not. We all see things differently but for me everything come back to the coach rather than the players. Small margins make big differences at this level and if the coach and players are singing from different hymn sheets then all harmony is lost. A case could be made that Lopetegui doesn’t have the players to play his preferred style (whatever that is); but the very job of a head coach is to make the best use of the resources available. By now it is patently clear that the extensive summer recruitment was not fit for purpose. It did not satisfy the most pressing priorities and failed to remedy the problems of age and pace that had been allowed to develop. Too many fingers in the pie and although Tim Steidten is implicated in some of the duff deal it is far from his failing alone.

The West Ham squad may be unbalanced but is packed with internationals. In half a season, Lopetegui has been unable to find any semblance of an effective unit. The team often look in disarray and have rarely performed in both halves of any game. The team defends in a way that exposes its lack pace – no other team has offered up more chances from fast breaks than West Ham – and square pegs are put in round holes either to accommodate his favourites or because he has fallen out with the alternatives. A lack of belief or understanding by the players as to what is expected – and few leaders on the pitch – can easily be interpreted as an absence of commitment. Compare and contrast how talented coaches have done much better with squads of lesser reputation at Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth – opting for collective endeavour rather than hoping for moments of individual brilliance.

By the middle of next month, the Hammers will likely have succumbed to heavy defeat by Manchester City (and Erling Haaland) – after they finally exorcised their recent demons at Leicester yesterday – and been eliminated from the FA Cup. In theory these are the latest two games Lopetegui has to save his job. In practice, as there will be little left to play for, the Board are just as likely to opt for the default ‘do nothing’ scenario until the end of the season. Another season lost and wasted without a shred of hope to cling to for the future.

The greater frustration is that when Lopetegui is eventually removed, who has any confidence that his replacement will be identified as a results of thorough scouting analysis that matches ability and potential with the club’s strategy for long term development? Rather it will be another short-term fix pushed though by David Sullivan either for reasons of expediency, having the right agent involved, or because he has been seduced by a sparkly cherry-picked fact on the applicants CV – such as used to be manager of Real Madrid. As long as Sullivan continues to make arbitrary decisions in his self-styled role if football guru – without taking advice from professionals – nothing will ever improve.

Ultimately, West Ham failed to break the record of most goals conceded in a Premier League calendar year. The final tally was 79 – 44 in 19 games last season, 35 in 19 games this season – and just one behind the record held by Newcastle. In this year’s standings, only Wolves, Leicester, and Southampton have conceded more. Just as well the club invested heavily in new defenders.

Performances for the whole of 2024 have been unacceptable. Winning just 10 of 38 league games, losing 16, scoring 50 and conceding 79. In all competitions, being thumped by five goals or more on six occasions. A footballing annus horribilis by any definition. How much longer must we put up with this shambles? COYI!