Last week, I spoke to someone I often refer to as a top transfer source on this website.
He’s spent a lifetime in football, is still involved now, and knows a thing or two about the game.
Regular readers will recall he recently said: “The real problem at West Ham is the recruitment — for too long it’s been diabolical.”
Having witnessed what must be a new low against Brentford last night, it’s hard to disagree. Because West Ham weren’t just bullied at the London Stadium — we were out-thought, out-fought, outrun, and technically played off the park.
Sure, Nuno Espírito Santo made a complete hash of the starting line-up — and dare I say, the substitutions too — but it reaches a point where the players must come under the spotlight. And I’m afraid to say, they’re simply not good enough. That, ultimately, is down to the owners.
Sullivan’s Squad, Sullivan’s Mess
West Ham have lurched from director of football to recruitment chief, before scrapping the concept altogether just to let David Sullivan have another go.
Yes — the very same major shareholder who sat in the directors’ box last night wearing a sparkly sequined blazer — can’t apparently decide whether he wants a progressive, tippy-tappy manager or a counter-attacking pragmatist in the dugout. Every decision Sullivan makes is reactive and seemingly the complete contrast of the one which came before it.
The composition of this squad reflects that confused mish-mash of thinking. And now we sit precisely where we deserve to be… rock bottom of the Premier League.
The team we’re watching flounder — no matter the manager — is the product of a club with no identity, no direction, and no soul. There is no cohesive leadership on the pitch, and there’s certainly none in the boardroom.
Would love it if we ended up top six at the end of this season.
I really hope that we are all amazed and raving about the turn-around of a team that were doomed a quarter of the way through the season yet with two games to go are challenging for fourth place.
Really hoping for this. We might need to identify a leader on the pitch. Someone with a handle on what is needed during a game. Someone to drive the team.
COYI
The manager has changed several times, the team has changed, the only constant is the ownership, so it should be obvious to everyone where the issues with the club lie. I went last night, because the team deserves support (well….), and boycotting a match where the ticket has already been paid for doesn’t affect the board. But after another £50 in travel costs to watch that turgid display I’m not sure I can be bothered any more
The whole world now knows what most C&H writers and those who post comments already knew. We are going to be relegated this year.
Last night we were completely inept in all departments. Brentford were impressive and show what can be achieved with good recruitment. Their squad cost a fraction of what has been spent on ours. Also all on much lower wages.
Relegation is not the end of the world providing it leads to a change of ownership and professionals appointed to manage the club with a clear plan
Can’t say I was a huge fan of Lucas Neill, but from a leadership perspective it’s absolutely right, Aussies like him don’t mind giving their teammates a full serve if they’re not pulling their weight (even though he rarely was himself).
Nolan, who was probably our 2nd best captain of the last 25 years and Noble who was the best, definitely did.
Bowen seems like a lovely fella who genuinely cares about the club but unless we bring in a wily old pro to be an immediate captain I almost want him to leave for his own sake so he can reach his full potential as a player away from the burden of captaining this terrible group of Hammers players. Never would’ve said that about Noble, who had nowhere near the impact on results that Bowen does. Sadly, we have zero other players who have both the talent and aptitude to be a leader.
I seem to recall some of the no hopers, not so magic Douif , no knackers fernandes, ect you were advocating for us to purchase, not forgetting couldn’t captain a rubber dinghy bowen always seems to get unwarranted plaudits, on paper our team looks ok on the pitch it doesn’t happen , we need a leader on the pitch we haven’t got one , we used to have but he got shipped off to turkey, we haven’t replaced Declan rice who lets face it was the new bobby Moore. It’s not the stadiums fault or whatever it’s whats happening on the green bit in the middle , I don’t think nunos the guy, we need mark noble in the dressing room putting a red hot poker up the teams rear ends
There is nothing I saw last night that would suggest that we can dig ourselves out of this hole. IMHO. Unless the January transfer window gives us a centre half who is tactically aware and is happy to put his head in where it hurts. A midfield general who will say what needs to be said on the pitch. And a centre forward who has a bit of pace and knows where the goal is. Anything less than this will do no more than paper over the cracks. And even if we get our dream trio, it might be too late. Let’s face it. This farce has been a long time in the making, Wrong thinking from our amateurish owners, assuming they think at all. Wrong players signed, wrong managers appointed, all leading to the inevitable relegation. Trouble is. Other clubs equal or even superior to ourselves have proven that when that trap door opens, it might not be possible to apply the brakes. (Leeds anyone). Who knows where we will end up, playing in division two in an athletics stadium possibly? The buyers won’t be queuing up then, will they Mr Sullivan. I hope everything I’ve said is wrong. But we all know where we are going, and it ain’t up. Come on you, I never mind, I’m not in the mood!!
I absolutely agree that. bigger picture, all that is 100% true but even with the players we have, (as a result of poor recruitment) last night’s selection was awful.
We were clearly set up to play on the counter and he leaves Diouf and AWB on the bench. Two of the quickest players in the league and AWB has long been considered arguably the best one-on-one defender in the PL.
I agree that Sullivan has made a hash of things, but the biggest mistake he made (apart from moving to the London Stadium) is giving in to supporter pressure and getting rid of Moyes. Demonstrably insane at the time and so it has proved. He provided structure and discipline and West Ham needed this then and now. Bad for West Ham, great for Everton.
What is the old saying “I have principles and if you don’t like them…..well I have some others” Sullivan is not a man of conviction. He knew that if he wanted a DOF to control all transfers, then he would lose his manager of four seasons. No manager worth his salt works without final any on transfers. Fine, if that was his strategy, but to then abandon the project because the first DOF doesn’t work out is madness. He has now returned to a low block counterattacking style manager who does have final say on transfers, but Nuno is not David Moyes and Moyes will not be returning to save us from relegation a third time
I agree that our problem 100% has been recruitment which has been truly shocking over the past two seasons Kilman £40m JC £35m, Guilherme £20m Fulkrug £27m nearly £125m on four below average players, who is choosing these players as I would suggest Stevie Wonder could do a better job…Steiden and Floppy started this mess by splashing circa £150m on complete dross, the only player with any credit was AWB and they signed 9 players!! This season has continued in a familiar way Mads £15m, Fernandes £40m, Magassa £15m poor. Sullivan is a problem agree and needs to go, but he hasn’t chosen all these players, our only hope of staying up this season is the January window and given our track record of probably 3 good buys from our last 17 players signed that is very worrying…
Seems the fans cant decide what they want either. Allegedly we want Sullivan and Brady out but 40 thousand scabs made a mockery of the well published and organised protest last night.
Well you get what you deserve and if 40k fans continue to ignore the calls for protest, then we are stuck with the much hated board as too many alledged fans are happy to accept them
Due to a bout of man flu I wasn’t at match last night so watched on TV instead. It’s amazing the different perspective you get from the big screen married with the comments from the commentators. Last night has moved me closer to not renewing at the end of this season and indulging in the much cheaper but much more entertaining and local Division 2 team.
The fans didn’t want granit xhaka Jordan Henderson or harry maguire oh how we could do with 1 or 2 of them now
Xhaka is exactly what we’re missing. A true leader, Prem proven and has the character to dig out players underperforming. Sunderland did exceptionally well signing him.
Shame he isn’t represented by Salthouse.
I’ve never liked Sullivan but he really seems to have lost the plot. Especially since the loss of David Gold, I now wonder just how much influence Goldy actually had on him? We have definitely been going downhill ever since.
Quite right, Sullivan I think is well intentioned but is a really quite old man running a football club as a personal hobby.
His biggest fault is being unable to appoint a serious manager- he never has succeeded doing it, barring getting lucky with Moyes.
Then he fails to recognise when times up soon enough and gets whatever free manager is available too late usually.
He doesn’t always skimp on money he backed Pelligrini and Lopetegui hugely financially and Moyes possibly altough he was also poor on transfers and preferred just not to get anyone and flog an aging tiny squad. Potter didn’t seem to know what he needed but was seriously under funded.
I thought Kretinsky had recognised this huge problem and insisted on a director of football and a serious recruitment team.
Like all the clubs doing well we need professionals making the key decisions. That isn’t Sullivan.
He particularly screwed up this window by not funding it and not getting the squad required. The squad now has three useless centre backs and no serious centre forward.
It’s a long way back from here but at least one dominant physical centre back is critical and a similar and mobile centre forward. Will Sullivan do that?
Very well summed up.
Hammers have been eroding since the departure of Harry Redknapp. We had a glimpse of ‘ West Ham Way’ football in the final season at the Boleyn ground.
You can plot a graph of demise and compromise of ideals that defined West Ham from the date we appointmented Roeder until the present day.
The common denominator is successive boards have failed to identify, recognise and harness just what Hammers stand for and should look like playing wise, coaching wise, player aquisistion wise.
T Brown killed the goose that laid the ” golden eggs”.
We protested back then, many of our gripes remain the same, decades later.
Icelandics, took us from virtuallt debt free, loaded the outlay for purchasing WHUFC onto errr WHUFC.
Ran us into the ground financially, which brings us to our current owners, from day one when they received the keys to Boleyn ground they told us we were selling up, undermined Zola, hired Grant, relegated us, appointed BFS
and so the direction of travel continues to move further away from what defined us. Football keeps evolving and no previous and current board has ever been able to read the room, embrace the times and follow the trends.
Almost as if we’re stuck in a continual loop of disarray decade after decade.
It’s a depressing thought to think back to Roeder and that it’s been that long but I reckon you’ve nailed it – small flashes like Pardew wiggling his arsen at Wenger, FA Cup final, Dean Ashton’s potential, genuine world class Payet, the final Boleyn season, the Covid games, the last of the Noble one club men, the rise of Rice, Europa Conference, the deep European runs. It’s been like a chain that keeps slipping out of gear just as something starts moving.
When someone congratulated me on the Conference win and the following signings saying we’d do well I remember saying yeah, but I won’t get carried away, we’re West Ham so we’ll probably be relegated in the next year.
Perfectly summed up DJ 👍
That’s dead on the button and the whole leadership of shareholders and directors are completely toxic and need to depart BUT IT WONT HAPPEN WHILST SULLIVAN AND SONS AND CRONIES STAY!
I agree Gonzo, the problems run deep and have spread wide. Lets be totally honest some of the stuff that has gone on is beyond woeful it’s actually deranged.
Last night was a shock to me, I was deceived by the Everton performance into thinking there’d been a few quick fixes. Brentford came second bottom of the away table yet were superior to us in just about every way. We were atrocious including sad to say one or two of the management things. We’re in trouble as it appears that it was the Everton performance that was the freak.
Short, sweet and 100% spot on.
Sullivan has got away with it the last 2 seasons…. but not this time, the only positive I can take is what his 800 million pound asset will be worth next year in the championship in a half filled soulless bowl
We need the football regulator in order to prevent owners like Sullivan having it all their own way with little regard for supporters, and driving great clubs like West Ham into the ground.
Unfortunately George a Football Regulator would have no power to stop Sullivan and Brady from appointing managers/coaches or prevent them for assembling a squad not fit for purpose.
Absolutely nailed it Gonzo 100%
Hearing Brady say we have a good squad is exactly what is wrong at the moment. She also stated that the Leadership team are working night and day to fix this.
Until Sullivan and Brady are removed completely from making any further embarrassing decisions nothing will change.
I said before the season kicked off we’d get relegated. I thought we’d put up a fight though which wasn’t what we saw last night.
There are not three teams worse than us to save us this season.
It’s just so depressing Matt mate
Certainly is mate.
If we don’t sign a striker in January capable of replicating what Hartson and Kitson did then we’re doomed. The three we have won’t save us.
Also we need a leader on the pitch in the mould of Lucas Neill / Kevin Nolan that is an on field general. Obviously Bowen is a class player but he isn’t the captain we need in a relegation battle.
Crazy that successive managers never signed a leader. You’re absolutely right.