Sullivan exclusive: “This nine day madness”

David Sullivan has blasted as “madness” West Ham’s Christmas and New Year fixture pile up which will see the team facing four games in nine days!

Sam Allardyce’s men confront Chelsea, Arsenal, West Brom and Everton in an FA Cup third round clash between Boxing Day and January 3.

The Hammers boss himself called for a midwinter break over the weekend and now the club’s chief shareholder and co chairman has waded in on the issue.

In an exclusive interview with ClaretandHugh he snapped: “I’ve been in horse racing for 30 years and we don’t ask racehorses to run to that sort of schedule.

“Very few players could play 90 minutes in all four games without seriously injuring or over stressing their bodies. How can clubs treat the FA Cup seriously when they have played a league game 48 hrs earlier.

There is nothing we can do, we’ll have a very fatigued squad then two days later three players leave for the African Nations !

“We do our best to win every game, but we so  much wanted a Cup run, its not easy with a tough away game 2 days after we’ve played WBA, but we’ll do our best.”