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.
If this happens it means Sullivan is still the majority shareholder and that spells bad news
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
Nightmare
Martin me thinks there’s a stich up going on.
Sullivan dark arts at play here.