By Sean Whetstone and Hugh Southon
David Sullivan’s emails have been published by Sky Sports in a continuing war of words between the co-owner and Sporting Lisbon.
But the emails still pose big questions and we come to the conclusion that David Sullivan would have been far better off remaining silent. There’s no mileage in this at all for West Ham United.
We believe nothing positive can come of this and that the West Ham name is being done little good.
The questions posed are obvious:
– Who were the emails sent to and who was copied into them?
– Why are the name of the recipient of the email and c.c fields blacked out?
– Were they sent to an authorised individual within Sporting Lisbon or were they sent to the player’s agent?
The emails show offers on 10th and 11th August which appear to be an opening low offer of £23m, why is there no proof of follow-up offers after that date? Is it because no formal offers were made after that date?
David Sullivan made the claim on the official club site “Late last night Sporting Lisbon made contact to accept the original offer, but unfortunately it was just too late in the day”
If that is true, where is the evidence of that communication and what format did it take?
West Ham have also claimed that the original bid was made at the eleventh hour on Deadline Day and if so hopefully the acceptance of THAT bid will be published.
The problem with releasing partial information to prove a point is it is a slippery slope and it’s unlikely to put this subject to bed anytime soon.
Full transparency is required!
Indeed. The stupidity of allowing this to escalate is beyond belief. If he’d let the original comment slide without blustering about legal action this would already be over. Now it will drag out and as you say full transparency will be required. That could be extremely awkward for Sullivan.
The emails, by the way, are shockingly amateurish, which tends to suggest they were to an agent, trying to get him to get his arse into gear, as opposed to Chairman to Chairman. I hope so anyway.
Right or wrong it is disgraceful that our moron owners have allowed this to escalate . Sullivan must get “excited ” by seeing his name in the media . Perhaps the porn has stopped working !! .
Unfortunately I tend to believe the Sporting claims … Just look back at our transfer track record …. Sakho , Payet , Snodgrass etc etc . Seems like we are incapable of making a clean transfer without wheeling and dealing … TIME TO MOVE ON . COYI
The emails were shockingly amatuerish?!?!
I do deals through email all the time.These communications can involve multiple emails.You dont need to write war and peace to get your point across.
Someone emails how much are you willing too pay for said items?
I will send back a figure.
Yes i dont like Sullivan but to call an email amatuerish when you have no idea about the rest of the communications sent is petty and searching for a reason to have a pop at him.
I personally don’t see how it isn’t true that an offer was made, SL even confirmed it earlier in the window, the nature of that offer who knows and who exactly it was made to, who knows, as for whether or not it was better to stay silent, if the offer was made via a third party (which seems may have been the case) then if all that comes out it will be good especially if the third party did not forward it on to SL. It seems like both parties believe they are telling the truth but looks like both parties are lying based on their statements so for morbid curiosity speaking personally I want to know what did or did not happen and why Sullivan when supposedly offered the player at the original bid turned it down.
Do any of us really think the truth will come out one way or another.Im past caring if im honest.Neither of these characters seem full of virtue but making up stories to suit agendas is silly.
It’s enough for the e-mails to be shown in this way just to show that the proof is there. Nobody has to go public with there e-mail addresses, and commercial confidentiality has to be respected ( unless a court orders it ).
If it proves an offer was made then it serves it’s purpose. All other questions are superfluous.
.What makes me laugh is that the same people who think all our dirty washing should be put on show, are usually the same who complain about the chairmen talking too much.
yep good point, he has generally been pretty quiet this window until this debacle, the personal insults have come from SL not him and he has a right to defend himself, from a publicity perspective it may make sense to have let it all die down but from a personal perspective that’s a different kettle of fish.
Sean you are absolutely right to say that DS would be better off remaining silent. That is true on many matters- particularly transfers. We seemed to have been better earlier in the window then reverted to type on Carvalho. The way he conducts himself drags the good name of the club into disrepute and would have Booby Moore turning in his grave. It surely is unhelpful in terms of future transfer dealings too?
On the commercial point the buy out trigger was 40m- whilst it may be an opening offer it is barely credible and reinforces my view that we are more interested in being seen to be in for players than buying them…
They are totally amateurish, although as I made clear that’s not the main issue here (ie. that of allowing it to escalate in the first place). References to doing things ‘asap’, or ‘we’ll borrow aplayer from PSG’. Sounds like a kid. As for the rest of the communication it will be interesting to see what, if any, there is, and how it comes across.
40mill buy out clause so we offer 25 over 3 years. No wonder we never got him .
Why do the Directors of our club feel the need to make everything that goes on in the boardroom public, we rarely see this amount of publicity from other Clubs…..The Director’s are making the club look like mugs! and the pressure on the manager and Players to perform in a way that makes us look like the great Club that we could and should be is becoming increasingly difficult……. It’s about time that they played their cards close to there chest, and BACK THE MANAGER AND PLAYERS!…….”COYI”
Don’t really care who’s right or wrong but I find it astounding that for a club whoi supposedly wants to got to the next level and and play European football and by all accounts have spent anything offer 23millon for a player with a buy out of 40millon and then to pay it over 3 years… To me that is just laughable and embarrassing.. Even the email looks so unprofessional… I understand c!lubs pay in Instalments but 23 million is not a lot at all! In this day and age .I like many other fans are totally sick of the way the clubs being run ..this is not the way a club who wants to move forward should be run ..it really is sad ..even more so when we have money to spend
What really frustrates me is the fact the club didn’t have a plan B. If Bilic believed we need a defensive midfielder then there are plenty of other options in the market. This is all rather embarrassing for the club again !