Press scrutiny on the West Ham board continues this weekend one week after the Sky Sunday Supplement apology and the banning of a prominent journalist from the London stadium.
Oliver Holt has written a sarcastic article in the Mail on Sunday entitled ‘An apology to West Ham chiefs Mr Sullivan, Mr Gold and their directionless, deracinated car crash of a football club” which can be read here
Tony Evans writing in the Independent has penned an article called “West Ham’s culture and identity are slowly being stripped away as Man City prepare to pile on the pain” which can be read here
Finally, Jacob Steinberg takes a slightly more balanced approach in the Observer today starts his article off by saying The east London club’s supporters were promised a world-class team at a world-class stadium. David Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady have failed woefully on both counts” That article can be read in full here
Journalists stick together, they don’t like being threatened with legal letters or seeing forced apologies on Sky and this is the predictable fall out of what happens when it does.
Unfortunately for us, they are correct.
We are a car crash, and will continue to be so, with GSB at the helm
I have read Stenbergs article and he makes some obvious and reasonable points.However, he has been sniping away for years and his articles are predictable.
Just because they stick together doesn’t make them right. Journalists traditionally report the facts , the minute they deviate from that and try to sway opinion means they are not really journalists but someone abusing their position of trust for their own ends, whether that being to sell news papers or more worryingly to drive events.
Whatever happened to the days of just going to watch your team for the lovely of the game?
Sad days indeed 😩
Lost when West Ham became ‘financialised’ by GSB. Hopefully, not forever.
Agree. Not reporting but editorializing. Can’t be “news” if there is nothing new.
Peter you have a short selective memory the press in the 80s was far more opinionated and scathing than it is today if you cannot remember that I suggest you watch the impossible job documentary. These journalists are calling out the owners because they cM see what it is doing to genuine fans. This isnt them making it up. I thank them for enlightening us whether we all agree with their opinion is neither here nor there. But your post just makes me feel uneasy because people who want to control press freedom of speech – not slander – belong in china. We are lucky in the UK to have such a glorious tradition of journalism let the courts decide when journalists overstep the mark. It is a tightrope at times but do not believe it is a coincidence the board is getting slaughtered – there is a genuine and factual reality to all these articles.
Oliver Holt is no friend of our Club .In fact I utterly test Holt ,Henry Winter and Harry Harris.Oliver Holt did everything in his power to get us relegated during the Carlos Tevez ‘affair’.He was working for The Mirror at the time.He was virtually on a crusade to get us relegated.He had a picture of two little Sheffield United fans crying and remarked .”These two little boys dreams have been crushed.They have been cheated out of a place in the Premier League,because West Ham cheated ,stuck two fingers up to decency and fairness in sport “He was relentless with his daily fix of anti West Ham diatribe.He tried everything to drive our great him to the wall. Self serving prat is little wimp Ollie Holt.Help from him ?NOT IN A MILLION YEARS !!1
He is a West Ham fan.
There is a positive article by Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times. Would give you the link if I knew how to do it.
I’m sorry pro board people might not agree, but the simple fact is ,our club is being run terribly.. anti board fans get a hard time because some people think they are just doing it to cause trouble, but it’s all out there whether you agree or not the journalists can see it too …people may not like it because the truth hurts …I’ve nothing personal against them ,they just have no idea how to run a football club imo…don’t see any of the other clubs board having as much to say as ours..
We are just so unprofessional that’s what makes it easy for the journalists but that doesn’t mean it’s not true …
Just shows the absolute naivety of our owners in trying to take on the press. Utterly and woefully out of their depth in running a modern, Premiership club.
We are a laughing stock and a legitimate media target. Poor decision making on players, managers, infrastructure is our calling card. We have made a couple of decent signings in panic (why were we even in this situtation) and I just hope Moyes and the players can dig us out. Makes you feel sick in the stomach just thinking about it. Its now walking over broken glass time. If I could give one coaching tip to the defence is keep scanning and stop tgis ball centric defeending rubbish- no other team in the premiership gives attackers so much space in our area.
Farehamhammer has got it 100% correct, holt was at the forefront trying his best to get us relegated, mans a weasel ( as you cant swear on here I can’t think of anything else )
Every Monday morning the “opinion writers” wake up in a cold sweat wondering what the hell they are going to write about this week. No sweat at the moment though. Between the owners and the minority of “real” West Ham supporters (I know they are real because they are angry) their columns are virtually writing themselves.
The enjoyment for the rest of us, (not real supporters) will just be the collateral damage caused by a few vociferous die hard objectors to everything, heading a number of easily led I want to be angrys with it all been stoked by a load of, “this is an easy life” journalists.
If you are not happy shut up and go away or buy the club. Watching the football is hard enough without having to put up with all the nonsense that is going on at the moment.
“If you are not happy shut up and go away”. I support the fact you are happy with the board I think they’ve done a lot of good especially in the first 5 years they are ok not great. I try and give them credit where it’s due. I refuse to forget the good they’ve done BUT to try and silence people with legitimate grievances who disagree with you is an unacceptable position to take imo. Dont try and shut people down just because you dont agree with them
We don’t because if we did we wouldn’t publish there#’s or anybody’s comment – we don’t HAVE TO publish comments
You absolutely correct, I wouldn’t wish to shut people down. However many of these people position themselves as representatives of the vast majority of fans. I do not believe that is correct; most fans are unhappy with the performances that does not mean we target the owners as the problem. To do that is as lazy as those journalists waiting for their “cheap” story.
In my time supporting the club (since 1984) these are the beat owners we’ve had, not perfect, but better than anyone else.
If these protesters are so keen to have the owners replaced why don’t they describe what sort of owners they want. I’m fairly confident if they do that we’ll all see that they are signed up to the magic money tree business model that prevails in cloud cuckoo land.
LJ please can you explain to me how a journalist sat at a desk in an office can ” get a football club relegated”?? That sounds like the subtext for an episode of the X Files. I am NOT a fan of Oliver holt believe me I hate some of his superior, sermonising, virtue signalling rubbish – but please try not to insult my intelligence! Maybe you mean he wanted us to get relegated? Well maybe he did but whether you like it or not we broke a serious rule and another club lost big time as a result and it was an angle he took. But he didnt himself cause the situation to unfold. Please lets have some perspective!!
Marc
He gave evidence in support of Sheffield Utd along with Henry winter suggesting without tevez we would have been relegated by several points so was helping their case against us and if they had decided to deduct points we would indeed been relegated thus helping get us relegated
How about a few facts to go with the mud slinging? We have a wage bill which is easily the biggest in the bottom ten & bigger than several in the top ten. That should at least ensure we are not in the relegation zone.
Who is to blame for this? The players? The fans, real or otherwise? Who is left to accept responsibility? Telling people to shut up & go away when they draw attention to some unpleasant truths is just burying your head in the sand. You are entitled to do that if you want but don’t expect everybody else to join in.
Are you talking to CandH 64
No Hugh. Sorry that was not clear. The comments were directed at some of the earlier posters who were telling people to shut up & go away. I have been a board supporter, although I am finding it more difficult now to have confidence in their ability to run the club efficiently. There is a debate to be had about that & it’s my view that both sides of that argument need to be heard.
Fair enough 64 🙂
Agreed mate