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Womens’ team is the house that Jack built

Jack Sullivan has spoken of crossing the generation gap as chief of the Hammers ladies team.

And he sees no problem that one so young should be involved in an increasingly important aspect of the game.

The son of Hammers co-chairman David Sullivan, he said: : “I see my age as the complete opposite to a setback.

“I view it as a real positive, a fresh pair of eyes. The most important thing is to listen to as many people as possible, sometimes you will be right sometimes they will be right.

Sullivan explained that he was just 14 when he turned to his mum on holiday in Spain to ask her to buy the women’s team for him.

He said: “Dad went home to deal with transfers during the summer and I suppose in my naive mind I thought I would be able to run the club at that age.

“When I’ve got my dad and Karren Brady backing me I can’t go wrong – they really know how to run football.

 Sullivan joins the West Ham Women official team photos

Since he took charge the women’s side have shot up from the third tier of the National League into the WSL- the first full-time professional division for female players in England.

They were promoted into the top flight last season and reached the FA Cup final in their first year, losing out to Manchester City.

The sale of season tickets have more than doubled to over a 1000 but Jack credits the rapid growth of the women’s side to the club’s core family values.

He said: “We are a family club I’ve always said that, we are all very approachable and we want everything to work in the best possible way.

“We know not everything is always going to be perfect like in a family but at the same time we do our best.

“Everyone’s very welcoming and there’s a real team spirit here which is what makes the club so special.

“We try and take the same values from the men’s side, we share a lot of the staff and the academy of football is something really important here.”

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

2 comments on “Womens’ team is the house that Jack built

  1. Lost 5 0 to man city at weekend the apple doesnt fall far from tree

  2. Spurs and Liverpool 3-0,Villa 4-0, Foxes 5-0 Shef Utd 6-0, Brighton 7-1 Real Madrid 3-2. City ladies are one of the best womens’ teams on the planet, packed with internationals. Pretty much like the mens’ team. So Your comment makes no sense.

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