In highlighting the predicaments of both West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the season finale, todays report in the Guardian doesn’t pull any punches in pointing the blame for the peril suffered by these two historic London sides.
One of the two, new stadium and all, will be condemned to the second tier of English football inside the next eight days. And for one set of supporters it will be agony, the others deep joy and an enormous sense of relief.
Guardian journalists Tom Jenkins and Jonny Weeks make it clear where they see the blame lying for placing the futures of these two sides in deadly peril.
‘…Fans fume amid relegation dread’
“With their spiritual homes demolished at the altar of progress and profit, first Upton Park in 2016 and then White Hart Lane in 2017, both clubs had visions of glory days ahead. Instead they have been consumed by greed, mismanagement and false promises.
Key perpetrators such as Karren Brady at West Ham and Daniel Levy at Spurs have exited the scene, but David Sullivan is still the Hammers chairman and the damage remains.”
Guardian makes it abundantly clear: “Consumed.. by greed, mismanagement and false promises”
Brady may have made a swift exit amidst the gathering storm clouds but her part in the downfall of West Ham will be neither forgotten nor forgiven as Hammers fans now face the reality of a drop into the second tier despite the hype of world class football just ten years ago as the owners sold the clubs soul for a bucketload of cash:
“The London Stadium – which West Ham now rent for a knock-down price – is universally panned as stale and unsuited to football, while the sparkling Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looks like a monument to hubris. One of these 60,000 seater stadiums will be hosting Championship football in August.”
And in a chilling summary, a supporter of one of the two teams still battling to retain their top tier status made the comment that could equally apply to both embattled sides:
“If we go down, we deserve to go down.”
We could certainly do with caring billionaire owners taking over the mantle of custodians of our successful club.
Victoria and David Beckham absolutely fit the profile.
Come on down Becks.
Head over to the BBC Football website and have a read of their article on Wrexham:
Beyond the Hollywood story – what are Wrexham really building?
It pretty much describes the exact opposite of what’s happening at West Ham and may see them go past us in terms of success within the next few seasons.
The London stadium is a poor stadium, but people make atmosphere not buildings
Sullivan and Brady destroyed Birmingham and now West Ham. He should NEVER be allowed near a football club!! Beware his son!! He’s an even bigger moron!
Birds of feather flock together.
Just look at the similarities between these two clubs and their custodians.
Anybody see the common denominator other than greed?
A bit late but finally people in the media are finally questioning what impact the management have had. I watched ‘have I got news for you’ on the BBC yesterday and one of the questions was surrounding the VAR decision against Arsenal. They then went on to chat about West Ham in general and who has recently left. And whilst not saying anything implicitly there was innuendo and fun poked towards her close links to a smutty little porn baron it seemed to be questioning her self appointed title as a top business women and maybe (this could be my imagination) hinting at something to be questioned in the future.