Right in the middle of West Ham’s last friendly against FC Magdeburg this afternoon, news broke of developments in the boardroom which tipped the scales in another direction, away from Daniel Kretinsky’s stewardship and towards a period of instability at a critical time in the club’s history.
Which throws the whole entente cordiale between Vanessa Gold and Daniel Kretinsky, created to thwart David Sullivan, into doubt. “Chaotic” is one description: Kretinsky obviously doesn’t control the club. Staveley is after the 25% shares owned by Vanessa Gold as a starting point, as broken by Gary Jacob of TheTimes:
The risk of a three way tug of war between three senior shareholders resurfaces: However whilst Kretinsky as a current shareholder has an opportunity to buy the Gold shares at the same price which Staveley has offered, this is by no means a finished situation.
Kretinsky could match her offer, or Staveley could win and then head off after Sullivan’s shares to complete, in effect a hostile takeover. As the Times report, Kretinsky’s camp have responded immediately:
“The agreement we had reached with the Gold family in June provided stability for the club at a crucial time,” a spokesman for Kretinsky told the Sunday Times. “This does the opposite. We will always act in the best interests of West Ham United and are reviewing all of our options, including exercising our pre-emption rights in full.”
It’s real, it’s not going away and it’s messy. In the midst of all of this there’s a Championship season over the horizon and a transfer window with players urgently required. Probably the only person rubbing their hands together is David Sullivan.
West Ham United are, apparently, issuing a club statement later this afternoon and we will bring it to you.
Think this is awful news and we might lose WHU to a bunch of profiteering sh*tes. Never been willing to buy success at whatever cost to the soul of this club. Keep seeing disasters happening across the leagues since the 80s, club fans revolting against executive owners who care only about profit and yet this grand club is going to follow them down the same path. I’ll go lay a wreath at the gates of the club I once knew.
Ahh so Staveley consortium came along and offered far more for Golds shares than Kretinsky was offering. Who can blame Vanessa Gold for selling to the highest bidder. Also the Stavely consortium has a history of growing clubs and increasing their value. Unfortunately if Stavely buys the shares it will leave Sullivan as largest shareholder. Unless Stavely consortium also buys out David Sullivan and this would give them control of the club and make a sale to rich Arabs a real prospect as happened with Newcastle right?
…or do a deal and buy out Kretinsky’s shares, that would give her a majority….
ah well looks like I’m going to have to eat my hat , i genuinely thought that she was just trying to get her face on the new club badge , so looks like the new name is going to be the Staveley Stadium then ! doh ! x
Best hope is probably a consolidation season while all this plays out, and then maybe a big promotion push in 2027-8. Not all bad news — 2 seasons without VAR, big club bias, media over hype, fixture churning for European matches, & preoccupation with playing out from the back/pressing/set pieces/wrestling matches.
Bad news for the club here. While wrangling about shares goes on the priority of getting transfers in goes on the back burner with the season almost on us. With Sulivan and Staveley involved you can bet there will lots of twists and turns to come.
If DK wanted the club that badly and had its best interests why does he he or hasn’t he stumped up the money and brought the Gold shares,he has no interest in owning West ham outright that’s obvious and he has openly admitted it in the past.We need an outright owner to take us forward and that’s not DK……what has he actually done for us in the year’s he has been here,I don’t see many Newcastle fans bad mouthin her admittedly this is not what we need right now but I did say weeks ago it will get a lot worse before it gets better.We need a completely new beginning and AS will give us that as I believe she wants it all she’s not in it for 25%
Had Kretinsky coughed up between June and now, Staveley could not have intervened. But he didn’t so that’s on him. All the Gold family have done is maximised their return. Under Kretinsky’s stewardship we have sold £150m worth of talent and brought nobody in whilst his hands remain firmly in his pockets, or ours. Im more convinced than ever that Kretinsky isn’t the answer…
Banked £150m? You mean to cover the debts and poor running of the club by Sully.
Do me a favour Jim. If you think this new lot are buying in for any other reason than to make money then think again
No Jimbo 2, the £150m banked to date isn’t all needed to pay off debt. And you say nothing of Kretinsky’s total refusal to invest a penny of his own money into the club. So whilst you may well be right about Staveley and her bankers, (I’m no supporter of hers), wake up and smell the coffee as far as Kretinsky is concerned bud. The current attempt to purchase Engels from Celtic is “Sullivaneske” and frankly embarrassing. At the same time he’ll further weaken the squad and usher Todibo, AWB, Fulkrug, Potts and others out the door. Post Office mark 2!
I think you judge him if/when he has full control mate.
You’re not a postie by chance? You talk about him the same way my old man does.
You can’t run a club like the post office on the basis only succcessful teams in the EPL and Europe can turn a profit. RM is a captive audience.
If this happens it means Sullivan is still the majority shareholder and that spells bad news
Sullivan would not be majority shareholder, he only has 38%. Ge would be the largest shareholder, but not the majority. Kretinsky, Staveley, Smith and Brown etc can still out vote Sullivan, who is no longer Chair
No, he’s not. 38% is not a majority.
Sad day for West Ham. It’s all downhill from now.
Why does oversee DK as the shining knight .
He’s been at the club years and done nothing .
Sullivan for all his faults was a football man !
Staveley will attract investment and she did a good job at Newcastle !
Eddie Howe is the carrot for me.
Sullivan only benefits if Staveley gets this deal done and it sounds like she may not.
To be honest am not sure what I would prefer DK has wealth but the club hasn’t been well run under DS and him, Staveley makes things happen.
The ideal could be if he lets Staveley run the club and he stays a minority owner…
The worst case scenario is a hostile takeover.
Amanda can’t happen. She has no interest in football whatsoever. It’s all about the feel of money. Not even her money!
Come on Danny – find the collateral and lead us back to the upper reaches of the Premier League.
COYI
Christ Taff, you usually hit the nail on the head but are you saying Sully was in it for any other reason than to make money. DG the silly old sausage perhaps loved the club on the basis he lived across the road from UP and turned out for trails for WH blah blah blah. But his sprogs were always waiting for a buyer and have been for a while.
Nightmare
Martin me thinks there’s a stich up going on.
Sullivan dark arts at play here.