Hammers United committee member Andy Byrne appeared on talkSport this morning – the intention being for him to explain what the group want from West Ham. Long time GSB critic Mike Miller reports on how he got on.
Oh dear, a bit of a car-crash!
Simon Jordan
Hammers United committee member Andy Byrne went on Jim White’s talkSPORT programme with Simon Jordan
He was given 14 minutes of airtime to describe the problems HU has with the board – of whom I too have been a very vociferous critic down the years.
Sadly, he failed completely to come up with anything concrete about what HU want, beyond greater communication with the Board.
Andy Byrne is an articulate individual but talked at length without coming to any real point.
He got into airy fairy issues such as culture and camaraderie but had nothing much to say beyond that other than HU wanted better communication with the Board and some participation in decision making.
He made reference to the HU Survey results and seemed to say he had to reflect those rather than put forward his own views.
Simon Jordan – a long term critic of David Gold and David Sullivan – gave him a a roasting about being ‘verbose, obscure, circumspect and self indulgent‘ and said: “I am no nearer understanding hat it is you want.”
Jim White was remarkably patient with Byrne, only occasionally prompting him to come to the point but Andy Byrne just sweetly carried on declaring he would do so without ever managing it.
A very poor and weak performance – a real opportunity sadly missed!
Claret and Hugh says: We switched onto the radio station expecting Andy to give the owners a serious blasting after months of protests and it just didn’t happen. And before anyone who didn’t listen to his views gets the hump I suggest it’s probably best to keep quiet because he said so little in the 14 minutes it truly was hardly worth listening at all. Andy spoke about the sentiments felt by supporters and how it was only right that owners should listen and understand whilst confirming several sets of talks had been held. He added that there were fans who did want the owners out but said that HU’s only position was to reflect that. Given the size of the protests we have seen that seems somewhat of an understatement but he wanted to make it clear, he added, he hadn’t appeared on the radio show to hammer the owners. That is all very odd in itself – they want to sit down with the owners and talk whilst reflecting some fans views that they would sooner they quit. It all drew a wicked response from Simon Jordan who made it clear he is no lover of David Sullivan or David Gold. He said: “Well, there we are then, shock horror, fans don’t like owners, and shock horror, owners don’t understand fans. That truly was an own goal from Hammers United who lost a perfect opportunity to put their case and having been given nearly 15 minutes of air time they can’t really complain that no-one is prepared to listen to their side of things.
Self-aggrandising talking head, who is only peripherally involved in the football “industry”, meets fan protest group lead at a time when there’s much less to protest about than there once was on a radio station which makes money from outraged sports fans listening in. What could possibly go wrong?
I’m quite depressed at the stupidity of our own fans , quite telling that our most successful spell in donkeys years is without our fans .
The fans wanted Moyes out when all he actually needed was time . The board have definitely backed managers in recent years.
Hate to state the obvious here from someone who finds the GSB Out movement pretty shallow and weak, but…maybe he struggled to present substance because there really is nothing more to it than ‘listen to us more!’. A chunk of fans annoyed by the stadium move just flailing to find things to justify their anger.
Should be re-named “ talk too much “ sport .
Everyone going nuts on Lingard when he isn’t what we need in reality .
Now we look close to getting Hwang Hee – Chan . Would be a fantastic signing IMO .
Young , hungry and full of energy with tricks to spare . Plus , he would a life long career in the Premiership . It should be a no brainer for all concerned . We are looking up and this kind of signing doesn’t need a telescope to see upwards . Hope we sign him , basically .
COYHAMMERS
Time for Hammers United to stop with the negativity they bring.
Support the club and move on.
I am a season ticket holder but have never supported Hammers United.
A huffing and a puffing. What about poor Carlton? Fourth in the league and rather whinge.
Suggest you stop this campaign to oust GBS . We survived due to them don’t forget . It’s about time fans realized this without your ever present objection to them . We are still a Premieship club with a will to get further ahead . Mouth & trousers mate . The board is doing what it can with the money they have and the consequent finances available . We are fourth in the Premiership currently ; but some people can never be happy . Some people are hellbent on destroying the club ( albeit through YouTube or a total disregard of our past , which wasn’t all that great if memory serves ) . I am 70 yrs old and have been a Hammer all my life . Tired of people that want to belittle our progress .
Take a rest from downing our Club and those that are trying to get us somewhere .
COYHAMMERS
Embarrassing going round in circles about F A ! Idiot.
The best thing Andy Byrne could do is resign, as that was a complete cringe fest. In fact the fore worst interview I think I’ve ever heard on talk sport and that’s saying something.
Could it be because we are doing rather well at the moment and with the owners following their instincts and employing David Moyes again after caving in to “fans” demands for big name Pellegrini!
Reminded me of my “ ol woman “ moaning about nothing !!
I question the timing of this interview, why’d JW bring this to the fore now, why’s the media narrative around West Ham always disruptive, we’re hardly ever portrayed in a positive manner. I stumbled upon the interview by chance whilst preparing lunch and as others have mentioned it lacked any real punch.
My reservation about our current board has been directed towards their inability to bring in substantial outside investment ( excluding Tripp Smith).
I have been miffed for the whole of their tenure how club’s like Leicester, Wolves, Villa and Leeds, all have been as far down the football pyramid to league One ( Villa excluded), can resource major expenditure on player’s, plus the ability to attract serious investment and make us look like paupers and yet we are a constant in the Premier league bar four seasons since inception. We are more often than not featured in the football rich list of the top thirty clubs in the world.
Can someone please explain to me how is it possible that Villa can be newly promoted and be able to spend £220 million within three transfer windows and Leeds over a £100 million, I’m genuinely baffled by this!
More to the poiont why did Hammers United accept the invitation? The rest id old news and I seem to see that we ar way above Villa and 15 other clubs. Maybe rather than dwelling in the past we would do well to look at what’s happening now. Why is there this constant “we must spend fortunes” mantra?
Hugh, I have no affiliation with any supporters groups, so I have no idea why the invitation was accepted. But I have been following my club since the halcyon days in the swinging 60’s. I have experienced marvellous match days over seven decades and during this period of time I can only remember one occasion when we really pushed the boat out for a player, step forward C& H blogger Mr Phil Parkes, purchased from QPR for a world record fee £550,000.
In recent times circa 2006, the Icelandic board had a splurge on players, however it later transpired that apparently it wasn’t financed by them though, that expenditure was absorbed by the football club, plunging us into serious debt. No wonder Scott Duxbury then interim CEO was left to pickup the pieces and go cap in hand to Alpari to advance sponsorship monies so we could purchase an emergency striker, I have seen this great club of ours run into precarious situations financially many a time and always scratch my head as to why aren’t we able to attract serious financial support, we have a tremendously loyal fan base, we sell huge quantities of merchandise, have multiple store outlets, a perfect geographical location for a catchment area, I’m not sure that many football supporters around the country realise that travelling west to eastbound once you pass Tower bridge Tower Hamlets, you are in West Ham territory, there’s no other PL club between that landmark and the Essex coastal towns, it is truly unique to London football. So we have massive attractiveness to court serious investors. I’m not advocating removing the current board, but I am miffed as to why the funding of a club of our size has always been underwhelming compared to our neighbours who have nothing like the catchment area we have at our disposal. I had no doubt that we would sell out London Stadium, in fact I wrote to the club way before the reconstruction of the stadium to state that the 80,000 seats should remain available, because if we got on a roll and had a modicum of success, even that capacity wouldn’t be enough for the size of the fan base. I still believe this!
The only other occasion that we have splurged was after Pellegrini appointment, some eight years after the current board’s custodianship began, eight years!
I’m of the opinion that a well financed club has a distinct advantage over poorly funded one’s.
For the record, I’m over chuffed with the team’s battling performances of late and always have a “ glass half full approach to life, but this has nothing to do with my comment regarding being miffed about being left behind by certain provincial clubs modus operandi, seemingly our board are unable to do likewise!
I go back as far as you and had never seen anything like the Pellegrini era. That didn’t work – the current policy is doing under Moyes so let’s give it a chance
Anderson, Haller, etc hardly paupers yet here we are now spending much less and doing far better than. The argument for spend spend spend doesn’t add up really
Hugh, I’m sorry to labour the point, but we over leveraged to finance the Pellegrini era,
Everything that could be put up as surety has been, it’s all debt on the club now, disaster as you rightly say. Husillios and his cohorts pulled our pants down and we were there for the taking so to speak.
Again I have to question the quality of the decision making with regards to the footballing infrastructure during that period, as once Pell and co were removed we were bereft of all scouting reports (allegedly), moving forward as you rightly say we seem to be progressing nicely with the current management team, it is incredible what they have accomplished this past year, a lot of credit has to go to the back room team, having Pearce and Nolan alongside Irvine is paying dividends for the manager who seems to really see what we are as a entity’s and what we can become, he referred to us as a “monster of a club “ a huge vessel was another anecdote used “ it takes time to turn them around “ Moyes states!
I have laid out in some detail why I believe we have always have been attractive as an investment vehicle on a serious scale, if we are serious to be able to facilitate the “ Redbull football process that Moyes has been quoted as being his preferred method of approach what type of further resource is required for this? If yes, what will be required to bring it about, more sponsorship perhaps ala Usminov branding all over Finch Farm at Everton, all about us clubs have had serious financial inputs, why not us too. In the right hands it could set us on a path to stability and upwards growth.
Just look at what has happened in N17. It sickens me.
That club borders with E17 Walthamstow E4 Chingford and yet they’re operating at a completely different level and that really hurts me deeply. Enic since takeover have been able to navigate through to the land of milk and honey, European football regularly. Jealous much, too right.
Please reread the entire thread, at no point is spending for spending sake advocated by myself.
Comparison against provincial located clubs, yes. Questions asked how have they managed to achieve their uplift so swiftly, whilst we toil and labour at a much slower pace, yes. Newly promoted clubs with nothing like our tenure with better facilities, see Hugill’s quote upon arrival at the Canaries, this too is questioned as to how they’ve accomplished this. None of the points that I have raised have you or any fellow reader shared an opinion as yet as to why we haven’t attracted serious external investors, The narrative for this conversation is not about spending, but about underpinning the financial stability of our football club.
It’s a genuine question and that alone.
I’m actually of a similar opinion. Yes Moyes and his team have been fantastic and has brought stability and professionalism to the club….for the moment. The last 10 years have been shocking and with no planning or leadership from the board/owners. It’s all well saying we are doing well now, give them time, yes for sure but without proper governance, planning & accountability from the owners, we will never move forward.
Im sick of the protest groups. All they bring is negativity. They also know perfectly well the worse West Ham are doing in the league the more people join them. Just think about that. They get more members the worse West Ham are doing. The better West Ham are doing the more insignificant they become. So they claim they support the team not the regime. I’m not convinced. Think you’ll find it’s support the team once the owners are out. In the mean time let’s cause as much of a stink as possible.
Some of the pro board comments on here are as cringe as that interview.
I’m sure half of you would be singing a different a tune if we were sitting in 15th again not 5th, suddenly it doesn’t matter we have the worst training ground in the league and a non existent scout network and sullivan as dof..again.justified by one attempt of letting the manager pick his own boss 🙄 A decade of uder investmented and over promised and mismanaged. These are the big picture term issues at the club.
We are having a great season , long may it continue! Moyes has got it right in the transfer market this time round and made the best of what we have. Don’t know how much this is down to moyes but when was the last time we had this few injuries? I can’t remember.
Just try and keep the balance and bigger picture.
Simply comments from the bloke who himself has issues a statement taking blame for a shocking performance. Some of us don’t keep whinging and whining wherever we sit. Fans don’t like the board – SCOOP!
I can’t abide Jordan, but he’s 100% right on this. A wide-ranging whinge movement is fun to be part of, but ultimately unless fans want to buy out Sully, they’re stuck with him. Running on the pitch like that bellend against Burnley might vent some anger, but it’s pointless. So we want a change of owner? Meet the Glazers, Mike Ashley, Randy Lerner, Usmanov, the Belgian bloke at Charlton, the list goes on. Almost everyone wants new owners – even the bigger clubs. Most Spurs fans want Levy out.
What we really want is to run our own club; not that we’d be any good at it or have a track record, but because we feel an emotional attachment that we feel entitled us to.
The stadium move was just a catalyst, an excuse. You’re still watching West Ham, just not where you’d always been used to. The Icelandic ownership showed us the Peter Ridsdale model from Leeds (spend it all on a burst for glory) and it failed. What we got was a pair of West Ham fans and their business-savvy sidekick who may – or may not – have had an eye on the main chance in the form of the OS. But no new owner would want to go back to UP – too small and outdated for the modern game. Does none of these mouthy numoties ever stop to think that it’s their attitude – ‘do what we want or we’ll campaign against you’ that has put off potential new owners?
We have what we’ve got – a shiny new stadium that’s not perfect, but costs us sweet FA against the Spuds’ billion pound spend. We do – and I know it’s only very recent – have a ‘next level’ side, so please, Mr Byrne & Co, shut the f*** up and get with it. We’re in the European spaces you know!