West Ham Chairman David Sullivan has told Jacob Steinberg in the Guardian that Spurs model of building a new stadium would have bankrupted the club. He also says that West Ham are only around £10m better off in the London Stadium saying he didn’t want West Ham to feel like a tinpot club.
However, in a wide-ranging interview, he did admit he regrets making ambitious statements like Champions league in five years or moving to the next level saying he didn’t release how hard the task was. On the possibility of relegation, he says he will do whatever it takes to keep the club afloat and get the Hammers straight back up.
On the Spurs new stadium model he told Steinburg: “I think Daniel Levy has done a fantastic job at Tottenham, but his cheapest season-ticket price will be three times ours. There might be a tiny little corner with 200 kids he calls the family stand. Maybe we should have gone a different route and borrowed it all. We would have bankrupted the club.”
On the London Stadium Sullivan said: “We’re about £10m a year better off,” he says. It’s not going to change our lives. I just think we feel like a big club, not a tinpot club. When players come to look at West Ham, they look at where you play.”
On fan promises such as Champions League and the next level the chairman said “I’m sure there’s 100 things I’ve said that I regret,” he says. “I didn’t realise how hard that task was. The money going into the top six is getting bigger.”
On the possibility of relegation this season he added “It’s going to be very damaging if it happens, we’d have to do whatever it takes to keep the club afloat. If we go down, we’ll come straight back up. We always come straight back up. We had to put £30m in the last time.”
I would suggest everyone reads the full text of that interview. It is vile, an utter car crash of an interview.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/08/david-sullivan-west-ham-worked-my-socks-off-not-good-enough
I think Sullivan should employ someone with a media background, I don’t think he sees anything malicious in what he says but if it has been reported accurately something Jakob Steinberg isn’t always renowned for then the way he talks about getting rid of the manager and players who are too old or not good enough is crass in the extreme.
I read this article on Twitter – the most encouraging thing was that he’s talking about employing a proper Director of Football – not before time!
He admits to never visiting the Training Ground – a bit strange for someone who’s being acting as a Director of Football – like trying to run the Club by proxy and not getting properly involved.
He also said he’d wished he’d got rid of Bilic last summer like his kids were pleading with him to do – they also didn’t want him to sign Fonte or Snodgrass – why doesn’t he listen?
We always come straight back up? we scraped it last time by the skin of our teeth… I don’t like DS very much at all, he’s turned in to Donald Trump.
Its a pile of 💩! This clown fools nobody but himself , he talks garbage ! So he didn’t think it would be that hard ? Being in the football business for 20 years according to him lol we are experienced in what we do ? Or something like that !! What a load of bolloxxx !!! Forget the next level we don’t know what were doing and the stadium makes us not tin pot ! Like at the old girl where teams hated to come because of its soul !! Why bother printing this dildos bull💩 it only rubber stamps the blokes full of it ?? Get out of my club you dickead !!😈
His Russian general outfit always reminds me of a tin pot dictator