Suddenly there seems a possibility that a late sell – off might further reduce the strength of West Ham’s match day squad, ahead of the Championship kick off and the Hammers’ attempts to secure promotion at the first time of asking.
Not what we as fans were promised, when Kretinsky’s bold statement in June assured fans that there was no need to sell players to satisfy financial constraints.. and the main priority was keeping hold of key players.
It was largely that statement that convinced 50,000 season ticket holders to renew their seats. That and a sense of a new post-Sullivan positivity-fuelled era at West Ham.
Now Claret and Hugh reader “Alans_Devon_Shire” offers his own ‘take’ over the reason that Kretinsky’s planned injection of much needed cash has never materialised:
“The real problem is people not understanding the reality of the situation.
The whole issue has been caused by Amanda Stavely attempting to buy the Gold shares, which put a hold on the £90 million that would have been invested by DK. So if Stavely had not got involved, the £90 million would have been available at some point to subsidise the club’s summer spending.
The fact that DK has had to suddenly manoeuvre and change plans – and also wait 2 months to go through the pre-emptive process means it has affected absolutely everything.
Early in the summer, before Staveley’s hostile takeover got started
With the Golds seeing an opportunity to sell all of their shares and for a lot more, and the DK and Gold deal not occurring as planned, it means that DK wouldn’t be majority shareholder so in that situation, why would his £90 million investment occur as planned. The deal he had agreed to secure and stabilise our club was hijacked by Stavely and the Golds, so the blame doesn’t lie with DK, but with others.
As far as I’m concerned with the information I have, all DK has done is react to a situation that has been created by the greed of others” –
Claret and Hugh reader’s guest post by Alans_Devon_Shire
Hence the possible sell-off of additional players – Freddie Potts already having departed and now Malick Diouff likely to be the next – to fund transfers or, alternatively, further debt repayments in the absence of an injection from the Czech Sphynx.
With no new statement likely forthcoming from the club itself, the only way West Ham fans will know which is true will be to watch and wait to see if any of the promised high profile £20 million players actually land at London Stadium. No Parrott, Engels, Isidor or Franculino Dju, for example, and the answer will be self-evident.
If that happens and the Hammers ‘rebuild’ consists solely of more freebies and odds-n-ends, it could well be that Staveley’s bid has indeed sabotaged West Ham’s summer transfer window by preventing the every cash injection needed to re-invest big time in the squad.
Thanks for publishing my article Martin 👍
In response to a lot of negative and speculative comments, I hardly think the way I spell Staveley is relevant if you can still understand the post. But then again, people here luv to pick up on the tiniest of irrelevant points to have a whinge. Maybe try and focus on the content instead as typing on a phone while on a train can lead to the occasional error. And a little information to anyone who may be interested – it is not all guess work, especially if you are connected to the club and know what/who to listen to! One other point to mention is the way everyone else likes to have an opinion, which they are completely entitled to, but maybe take a moment to calm your rants and read the room before slating what I have said as being completely inaccurate – It may be a guest post from a reader as Martin says, but I dont post a lot and the information I do post is normally from a very good source and also accurate. Also when I state an opinion I let it be known that it is just my opinion and not fact!
COYI
“Negative and speculative” responses”? Hahaha welcome to my world.
I always try to provide a broad spectrum of comments and opinions, makes the site a more interesting ‘read’.
I appreciate you posting mine and also enjoy reading your articles too. Nothing wrong with differences of opinion and respectful disagreements and banter. I also agree with you regarding making the site a more interesting read Martin, and appreciate it is your job to post and provide thought provoking articles and opinion to keep the site relevant and active.
COYI
Absolutely spot on there’s no way Bowen and mavropanus would have put pen to paper on a revised contract if this was occurring ,why would they without assurances ,definitely staveleys intervention has put the brakes on kretinskys plan which to me sounded promising
A lot of fans seem to view Amanda Staveley as the great saviour of West Ham, and Daniel Kretinsky as the problem, but personally, I think business has got in the way, and AS has seen an opportunity and gone for it.
Yes, the £90m has not materialised. However, DK offered to buy 16% of the Gold shares, at a lower price than the £150m AS offered for them. So lets say £90m cash for the shares, £90m cash for the club. Win win. Now, he’s got to have £150m cash for the Gold shares. We know that the vast majority of DKs valuation is in assets, not in cash, so it might be as simple as there was an agreement that the £90m would go to the club first, and then in a couple of months, £90m would be spent securing the Gold shares.
Away from West Ham, and probably the both the jewel and the weight around the neck of the Gold estate is Ann Summers which is and has been for a while in a terrible financial state. The Golds need money. Ask yourself what would you take, £90m for some or £150m for all.
For what its worth Amanda Staveley will not care if we dont get promoted next season. Her ambition is, allegedly, to rebuild a football club. Her investors however see the club a stepping stone to a land grab. She’s publicly said as much. For DK, its his money and whilst I think his involvement is also partially land grabbing, he’s already got lots of money invested in the club, and he’ll see the club being promoted as a way of protecting the clubs valuation whilst also being able to profit off the land.
As much as we all want to know what’s going on, no one is going to release a statement saying “yeah… ive not the cash avaliable at the moment” especially if his associates are quietly liquidising assets.
Personally, i think the eventual outcome is that DK will have 49% shares, DKs mate will have 2% and then AS’ group will get 49%. I’d imagine theyll then send up a holding company that the club will get transferred to, which will be used to purchase the land and begin development on that. DK as chairman, with AS working as CEO but hopefully we can keep Karim involved.
The only stumbling block is a certain majority shareholder who is probably still expecting some travelling salesman will offer him £388m for his shares. (A club valuation of £1billion).
In terms of transfers, I think the Fernandes and Summerville cash went directly to paying off the club debts. The frustration will be that theres been no interest for the likes of JWP, AWB, Pablo etc. I dont see Engels coming in until Diouf is sold, I dont see Parrot coming in unless Magassa is sold, I think Disasi will be a loan fee, as will Nelson if he comes in.
I want to be wrong. But it seems the focus is anywhere but the pitch at the moment.
Wow won’t let people post liars !!!!
I said this a week or so ago, why would Kretinsky still invest the £90m if he might no longer control the future of the club?
Rob you are talking rubbish KB and AS are completely different characters.
DK has said a lot and done nothing only got a load more people to renew their season tickets when many probably wouldn’t have.
He knew the state of the finances and did nothing only
He knew that Sullivan had had been told he couldn’t be near kids or women and did nothing only
He said he would put in around 90 million and did nothing
He got great prices for our 2 best players but has only bought Solomon
Whilst we all start pointing the finger at someone who isn’t even part of the club or one of our largest shareholders we can’t lose sight of who the real villain of the piece is and that is our largest shareholders. Let’s keep the heat on him and not one of his heirs, either of whom will be a massive improvement on that sordid little individual
Finally someone who tells it as it is. DK was stopped in his tracks by Staveley’s attempt to buy the shares, she has no real wealth but relies on her finance company to broker deals. DK has the billions, let him do what he set out to do. The club will be in a better place under DK, if Staveley gets her mitts on us it will be GBS all over again.
Hi Martin, I can’t agree with this sentiment mate. DK had 2 months to start the process to buy the gold shares but as far as we know he hadn’t taken that option up, he’d had the same amount of time to inject £90 million to help with liquidity but he hadn’t done that before staveley got involved last week so he had plenty of time to get the ball rolling and the indicators are that he didn’t do that. I honestly can’t work out what the plan is, I have serious concerns that something isn’t right but I have no evidence other than the distinct lack of any transfer business in as of today. Now it may change and I hope it does, but my fear is we will see mav, Diouf, taty, magassa and other fringe players going out and replacing them with the likes of vardy. I genuinely hope I’ve got this wrong. Cheers
No worries, its a reader piece so I didn’t write it, thanks for your different, still courteous opinion.
Sorry Martin but this isn’t correct. Kretinsky could have purchased the Gold family shares upon agreement back in June, thereby heading off Staveley st the pass. Secondly when Staveley did bid, Kretinsky and the board made a statement to confirm this action had no bearing whatsoever on our transfer plans. More deflection away from the real source of our problems Im afraid.
Dont apologise to me.. its a guest post by a reader
Not true. It would still have needed to go through the 2 month pre-emotion -rights process
Staveley throwing a spanner in the works has surely put a stop to Kretinsky injecting £90-100m into the club for transfers. This is a mess
Oh well.
Make do and mend until January I guess.
Until then, freebies, loaners and academy players will suffice.
Oh and the odd cheap one 🙄
It’s not necessarily the greed of others, although this post is totally correct in so far as what has happened and its impact. If Kretinsky was going to buy 9% or so of the shares for a set amount but Gold really would have liked him to buy them all, well, if Staveley comes along bidding to buy them all and for much more per share than Kretinsky was offering (Premier League money, remember?) any business person would decide to sell them to Staveley.
Claret and Hugh’s recent post that stated a club contact said this wouldn’t affect transfer plans this window couldn’t have been further from the truth (not stating it’s your fault, rather that of whoever your ‘contact’ is). Of course it affects transfer plans, it affects the entire financial landscape of the club. That £90m Kretinsky was going to put in is now likely to be eaten up, plus more, by the fact he has to buy all 26.1% of Gold’s shares otherwise Staveley will take them, something he didn’t envisage earlier in the summer. Still, wouldn’t an astute business person have seen this as a possibility and made plans for it? It’s not as if Staveley’s interest would have been a surprise.
Saul – The board said “West Ham would like to assure supporters that the day to day running of the football club is in no way affected by this situation” If it clearly impacts transfers, then the board has misled supporters again haven’t they?
Your agenda with DK is getting a little boring.
It’s a guest post and from someone who cannot even spell Staveley correctly.
It’s all guess work. You also keeping missing the point that DK, or whoever can makes a statement that players don’t need to be sold, which can also be true if a player decides they’ve had enough and wants to leave.
What then? Is that DK failing to keep his word or sensible business to get the best fee for someone who wants out of WH
The irony isn’t lost with the typos but the point still stands…
That is about it, and remember how the last female did for the club. I say keep her out at all costs.
Wow. Not a bit sexist. And as David Sullivan is a male, should we disallow men from involvement in the club too?
if i remember rightly Karen Brady was an employee of Sullivan so in effect she was under instruction as to what her roll was. she did not make the decisions and i,m not aware she was a shareholder either but no i don’t blame her for what sully has done. he alone is responsible for all this mess
the attitude of a man around the time of the formation of our club at the end of the 19th century. dinosaurs are extinct, don’t you know?