By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
It’s been fascinating to watch the fallout following yesterday’s Sky News revelation that Amanda Staveley is looking to buy Vanessa Gold’s 25% stake in West Ham United.
Claret & Hugh spoke to a club source yesterday evening who was keen to stress that The Times follow-up article, suggesting negotiations were at an advanced stage, was wide of the mark and that Sky’s reporting was much closer to the truth.
Either way, it’s clear Staveley has designs on owning a stake in West Ham and, with Daniel Křetínský’s ownership plans still incomplete, it has created a huge amount of uncertainty. As I wrote earlier, a swift Staveley deal could even prove to be the catalyst for West Ham’s transfer activity.
Křetínský has created this uncertainty
At this stage, the Czech billionaire could have nobody but himself to blame.
Back in June, the newly assembled West Ham board confirmed on the club’s official website that Křetínský would acquire part of Vanessa Gold’s shareholding and become the club’s largest shareholder.
Nearly seven weeks have passed since that announcement and nothing has happened.
Factor in the disappearance of the much-discussed cash injection, together with West Ham’s failure to sign a single player so far this summer, and it’s easy to see why supporters are beginning to ask questions. As I argued previously, the emergence of Staveley could fundamentally alter Křetínský’s long-term ambitions at the club.
That may prove to be completely unfair. Křetínský may yet complete the transaction exactly as originally planned.
But in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, people are naturally going to speculate.
The clock is ticking
Some suggested last night that the Czech businessman would not appreciate this kind of speculation while attempting to complete his own takeover plans.
But there would be no story if the share purchase had already been completed, as many interpreted from June’s announcement.
One thing, however, appears increasingly clear.
If Staveley succeeds in buying the Gold family’s 25% stake, it would almost certainly end any realistic prospect of Křetínský becoming West Ham’s dominant shareholder. That’s particularly significant given the well-publicised difficulties surrounding any potential deal involving David Sullivan’s shares.
Of course, it’s also possible the latest reports are designed to put pressure on Křetínský to finally complete his purchase.
I sincerely hope that’s not the case.
After all, do we really want owners taking control of West Ham because they’ve been backed into a corner?
The next few days promise to be every bit as fascinating as they are revealing.
We just don’t know do we. Kretinsky could be considering an offer to buy him out as well. when he made the official announcement that was his intent to protect his investment but things change. A normal investor would not disclose discussions about buying his shares, we’ve just been used to the loose lips of Sullivan.
Talk Sport had an article claiming Kretinsky is already the majority shareholder having agreed a purchase of 16% of Amanda Gold’s shares in June (not sure this is correct).
Not being a financial whizz, and not sure where to look. I ended up in the UK Governments Company House Register.
According to the records there, David Sullivan’s date of birth is December 1997!
What fresh hell is this I have woken up to?
Damn that man must of had a hard life. 😂😂😂
Or the Staveley interest has given Kretisnky the opportunity to sit back like he was doing before and let Staveley grow the club and push the value of his shares up.
I agree that is the most likely outcome. Kretinsky only ever wanted to be a minority shareholder with no involvement in actually running the club.
I suspect he will let Stavely buy the full Gold stake and let her become chief executive. My issue is I don’t trust either of them as they are not supporters with the club’s interests at heart
Sullivan apparently is a west ham supporter snd hes terrible.
I think most clubs owners are not actual supporters of the club, but at least a lot of them will let experts get on with. Stavely done a really good job at Newcastle, i think West ham has even bigger potential if they can buy the stadium theres so much that can be done.
I guess it depends on who this consortium is.
If Staveley’s interest is delaying Kretinsky’s share purchase and cash injection, then we may not have enough free cash to buy anyone. I watched the highlights of the Leeds game again today and we looked fairly poor with Fernandes, Wilson and Summerville. I dread to think how we will cope with out replacements for them.
Staveley’s interest is not delaying Kretinsky’s share purchase as he and every other board member have the right to purchase those shares before they are offered to Stavely. Those shares have to be offerered to each current member of the board and the offer declined before they can be offered for sale to Stavely or anyone else.