Failed ex chairman mocks Sullivan

Simon Jordan really doesn’t like David Sullivan very much and rarely has problems saying so which tells us more about him than the West Ham chairman’

Jordan made his fortune in the mobile phone industry, purchased Crystal Palace in 2000, and remained chairman of the club until administration in early 2010.

He is now of course a pundit – a job which out of work formers be they players or chairmen – tend to get involved in despite refusing to help the media much when they are in what they reckon were their proper jobs.

He has discussed West Ham and its owners Sullivan and the late DG on numerous occasions and once again he has been taking a pop at DS in the hugely predictable subject of Declan Rice – nothing very original there then, everybody else is discussing it so why not him?

He has been looking at the Arsenal bids and reckons that in Sullivan they have a problem in getting the deal done – well that’s good news given what they have offered.

Giving it large on talkSPORT he said:  “At this moment in time what you’ve got is Arsenal sitting in an auction room and going ‘oh I’ll bid’, that’s not big enough, ‘oh I’ll bid again’. That’s not how it works.” As a bloke who led a club to administration he would know of course!

When you’re doing a deal and get some competitive tension in the room and you believe that other people are going to bid against you then you react to the circumstances.

“If Arsenal want to steal a march, they rock straight through the door and go ‘I’ll give you a hundred million quid, done, on the nail, we’ve done the deal’.

“But you’ve also got to recognise who you’re dealing with and I’ve dealt with Sullivan and if Sullivan tells me it’s 9 o’clock in the morning I check my watch. So with that, you’ve got to price in who you’re dealing with, I think you have to price in there is a perception,  this is a commodity other people want to have.

“And if you’re Arsenal at this moment in time; if you’re first out of the gate and you’re establishing your position, do you believe with the nature of a deal that it is perceived a variety of clubs are interested – unless you do precisely what West Ham do, if you say to David Sullivan tell me exactly what you want and if we meet that expectation will you now subsequently do that deal? And I promise you now it will be like nailing a jelly to the wall.”

So it’s all good news for the Hammers then with Sullivan playing a cute game to get the highest fee before listening to a bloke who led Palace to administration insulting him from the pundit chair.

Back handed compliments are usually the best.

Meanwhile Sullivan is leading a club which is in the Europa League and has just won a major European trophy!

Hmmmm!