By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
Some news which might get West Ham fans more than a little concerned is that former chairman David Sullivan remains the club’s largest shareholder.
As things stand, it would appear that Daniel Křetínský is yet to buy the Gold family’s shares, which will undoubtedly have Hammers fans asking… what’s the hold-up?
Companies House Yet To Catch Up
While the deal to increase Křetínský’s stake was announced last month, the public record has yet to catch up.
A search of Companies House still does not show any filing confirming a change to West Ham’s ownership structure, with Sullivan remaining the club’s largest recorded shareholder.
However, that does not necessarily mean the transaction has stalled.
Unlike a public company, share transfers in a private company are not always reflected immediately on Companies House.
Before a transfer can be completed there are a number of legal and administrative steps to work through, which can include complying with any pre-emption rights contained within the company’s Articles of Association or shareholders’ agreement, obtaining the necessary approvals and updating the company’s own register of members.
Companies House is then updated through the relevant filings, which can come some time later.
David Sullivan is still the largest shareholder at West Ham
No Need To Panic… Yet
In other words, there is nothing at this stage to suggest the proposed deal is off.
It may simply be a case of the formal process taking longer than supporters anticipated before the paperwork reaches the public domain.
Until those filings appear, though, David Sullivan remains the largest shareholder according to the publicly available records, with Daniel Křetínský’s move to the top of the ownership table still awaiting formal confirmation.
The delay could also explain why there has not yet been a cash injection from the Czech billionaire to help reduce some of the club’s substantial debt.
Whilst it’s certainly not time to panic, there will undoubtedly be supporters wondering whether the delay is also one of the reasons West Ham have yet to make a meaningful move in the transfer market.
It matters not if Sullivan is the largest single shareholder, because he is not a director.
He can still be outvoted if the other shareholders club together and it’s not a small company situation where the majority shareholder is also ‘the boss’ and wields a big stick.
Everything needs to be promoted and resolved within company rules.
Any changes will go on the clubs next confermation statement
Anyone who has followed this club for an extended period will be concerned, especially reading the (understandably) cautious language used in almost every sentence. After all the fanfare of Sullivan stepping down and comments like ” bouncing straight back up”, we are now almost halfway through the transfer window, and we have yet to buy a player or clear out the deadweight. This is all so “West Ham” and a very real indicator that nothing has changed “YET”. As it stands, we don’t even have a team or anything that suggests a “fresh start”, just the same coach, but possibly without his back up, and a few less players to choose from due to end of legal contracts. Things are going to have to get busy quick for a return to PL football after just one season.
How do we know there’s been no cash injection, there’s no legal reason why they have to make that public knowledge, except through the financial accounts, now according to which financial accounting period he was referring to the 25/26 audited, signed off and submitted finalised accounts for that year are not due till February 2027, when they should become public knowledge, if his intention was for the 26/27 accounting period that may not become public knowledge till 2028, until the final accounts for any year become available I think we just have to accept if the board say there’s no problems with finance it might be the case that’s all we’ll get until the accounts become public record.
Personally I don’t believe, although I could be wrong, that the lack of transfer activity has anything to do with finance, if you take a bit of time and actually write down all the players that are 21 and need to be registered as a squad player, and as of today, are still with the club its about 22 players, now start adding in players such as Kante, Scarles, Herrick, Orford, Golumbekis, Mayers, Diouf, Ajala and any others that might make the squad around the 19/20 mark you start to see how huge our squad actually could be, so personally I think that until we can either shift some players out either sell/loan where we find space in the squad for new players.
Great number of academy players but club needs some experienced older players especially for championship.
Disarsi and Matt Targett (freebie) would be ideal starts.
For other positions Patrick Berg / Sorba Thomas / Daizen Maeda.
Whatever happened to Daniel Cummings who only came to whu for first team football that Potter promised?
I’ve just reread the Gokd/Kretinsky statement of 13 June. It gave a timescale of a couple of weeks for the sale/purchase of shares. We are almost 3w passed the expected completion date if it has yet to be completed.
The statement also stated that this transaction would enable further investment into the club. No timescale or amount was given.
My understanding is the overdraft and loan were due for repayment/renegotiation last week.
The lack of comms is worrying but does not mean nothing has happened. Indeed, appointments of senior management to support the club and Nuno suggest things are happening.
It would be great to have some formal club statement but no need to panic as yet.
There would have been a fire sale by now if there was a problem
Having knowledge of companies House workings it certainly is unusual for tranfers of shares to take this lengh of time to complete It appears from the outside that Sullivan is still pulling the strings silently behind the scenes regarding the direction of the club
Still run like a circus