David Sullivan has thanked every fan inside the London Stadium yesterday which “made a massve difference and inspired the team to victory.
Speaking on the official website he said: “It made a massive difference and clearly inspired the team to victory.
It has been a difficult week for everyone associated with the Club, but the staff and players ignored any distractions and produced a performance we can all be immensely proud of. We deserved it.
Everybody was united and worked together with the manager and the players to get a vital win. We totally deserved it.
I said last week that we had two ‘cup finals’ and we have won the first. Now we go to Middlesbrough next Saturday with confidence and I am sure we can win the second, too.”
He explained that Michail Antonio had been in bed with flu on Friday but said he “showed great determination and commitment to play and create all three of our goals. I have great admiration for what he did for us and to get three assists in the space of 18 minutes was terrific.”
He added: Andy Carroll was brilliant, too. He never stops working for the team and he scores some absolutely fantastic goals. That was surely the best of his career and I’m sure we will be replaying that again and again all season long.
The atmosphere inside London Stadium was special, especially in the second half, when it was as loud as it has been all season.
Now, we go forward looking positively to the next game and with the real chance of closing the gap on the teams in seventh, eighth and ninth in the table.”
The club should be smart and build on this. For all the problems this season, yesterday really put things in perspective. Everybody has made mistakes this year – the board and their signings, the manager and his softly softly approach with payet that was taken advantage of and must have caused problems with other players, and the fans and our attitude toward the stadium. And yet despite all this, Payet’s deliberate treachery has highlighted something very important: nobody has done any of this with anything but the best of intentions. Sure, apparently they pave the way to hell, and anybody who watched the man city game might be inclined to agree, but it’s time to get things sorted.
The board know they need to deliver some quality signings. Of course the club needs to be run properly and if we’re all honest, I think we can all say nobody worries about the financial security of the club with our current board. In this regard, they are very good owners. That being said, sometimes they should go with their gut as fans rather than their heads as business owners. On the face of it, £15m for Defoe makes poor financial sense. I know this. But seeing him clinically put away his one chance yesterday, again, makes this a decision to be made as a fan. Will we see a return on investment? Not likely. Will he score goals? Undoubtedly. Will he give fans something to cheer and will he give the place a lift? Definitely. Value for money can mean many things. Not all of them are quantifiable.
The manager got the Payet situation wrong. I understand. He gave a lot to Payet. He went out on a limb and it almost cost him his job. Does this make him a bad guy? Nearly 60,000 West Ham fans yesterday emphatically answered the question: “Super, Super Slav…” Has he lost the dressing room? When he was under the cosh, his players dug deep and produced their best performance of the season. He’s still the king in that dressing room. Long live the King.
Lastly we need to take a look at ourselves as fans. I appreciate many people have experienced problems and there are still things to be sorted, not least the bad attitudes of some of the stewarding staff and the manner that Westfield seems to treat us as second class citizens despite it being our home, too. But we also need to do our part. At the end of the day, it is the fans that will make this house a home. Yesterday it felt like a fortress.
People say the atmosphere is suffering because of the distance to the pitch. I was lucky enough to be at the Chelsea game and again there yesterday. There was no problem with atmosphere. We need to realise that it is our responsibility, rain or shine, win or lose to do our bit, too. This season everybody and their dog has taken a dig at our great club. We’ve been made to feel like criminals from day one. But this is our home now. It’s time to be proud of it. To defend it. To make it the world class stadium it could be. Make no mistake, the roar from the fans yesterday pushed that team on to deliver everything we want as West Ham fans. I can barely speak today but it was absolutely worth it! But we need to do it every game.
Sam Allardyce once questioned what the West Ham way is. Yesterday he received the best answer we could possibly give. At the end of a depressing week that would have seen your fickle man Utd/Chelsea/arsenal/spurs fans point fingers, moan and fall apart, we stood together, rallied round our team, our club and our manager and sent him back to south London having seen goals and heard support the like he could only dream of. “Super Slav” must still be ringing in his ears.