David Gold and David Sullivan have owned West Ham United for just over ten years, during that time they have made countless unsuccessful transfers whilst breaking promises and moving West Ham from their sacred home, Upton Park.
Their ownership has led to many protests and derogatory chants aimed at them by the West Ham fan base over the years, and after ten years of their poor running of the club, many fans are once again calling for their heads.
In January 2010, Sullivan and Gold acquired a 50% share in West Ham United giving them operational and commercial control of the club. Karren Brady joined as the vice-chairman. David Gold had lived just 50 yards from the ground for 20 years whilst David Sullivan had gone to university nearby so both claimed to be supporters.
This gave fans hope that they would understand what it meant to be a West Ham fan and wouldn’t just run the club like business as is the modern way. Within a few months, the pair had raised their ownership, giving them further control and by 2012 they were in full control of transfers and commercial deals.
Gold has been quoted on several occasions, saying I am not here for the money (paraphrasing of course) despite high sums of money generated from player sales and the stadium sale seemingly disappearing. The frustrations seemed to start at the end of the 2010/11 season when West Ham was relegated from the Premier League.
However, it was too early to really blame the owners and Avram Grant was rightly sacked at the end of that season. Sam Allardyce was a clever appointment by the board as he was just the man to bring West Ham back to the Premier League and he did after Ricardo Vaz Te‘s 87th-minute winner in the playoff final.
At this point, however, the board was spending next to nothing, relying on loans and frees. The trouble really started in 2013 when Sullivan and Gold backed West Ham’s bid to move into the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
They secured a 99-year lease deal meaning the club wouldn’t even own the ground, restricting what they could do with it, the club would move in 2016 while Upton Park was destroyed. This coincided with David Sullivan gaining the remaining 25% of the club meaning that West Ham United was totally in the clutches of Sullivan and Gold.
In their first season back in the Premier League West Ham finished 10th which was positive, there were some savvy pieces of business in the surrounding years with the likes of Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, and James Collins joining, but still, not much money was being spent. West Ham finished 13th in the following season and 12th in the season after that.
More from Green Street Hammers - West Ham
- Brighton vs West Ham predictions: Can James Ward-Prowse help end the curse?
- West Ham and two Premier League rivals made huge transfer stand
- Lucas Paqueta bet allegations discussed in West Ham and Man City transfer talks
- Bournemouth vs West Ham predictions: Premier League opener amid transfer chaos
- West Ham near Denis Zakaria transfer after final James Ward-Prowse bid
The owners didn’t want to settle for mid-table obscurity, especially when moving into the 60,000 seater stadium in Stratford so decided to not extend Sam Allardyce’s contract. They chose to bring in ex-player Slaven Bilic as manager.
This led to a fantastic last season at Upton Park, the Hammers finished 7th while reaching the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, if anything it proved that the club could reach the next level at Upton Park and in a sense raised expectations of what was to come in a new home.
From the offset, it was clear there were issues with the stadium. For starters, the seats were a long way from the pitch compared to most other football stadiums. This twinned with the vastness of the place makes it hard to generate an atmosphere, it is miles away from the hostile atmosphere that had been created on countless occasions at Upton Park.
This angered many fans as it seemed as if other teams weren’t scared of visiting the home of West Ham United anymore. There is also no option to move the seats closer as West Ham doesn’t own the stadium.
However, most anger was fuelled from the promises that the board had failed to keep. Karren Brady had promised a ‘world-class stadium’, but while the stadium is good (just not for football), the inner stand is visibly supported by scaffolding.
The stadium is also near a huge shopping center and sells popcorn and drinks at high prices suggesting that the owners are trying to lure in tourists rather than play to the needs of the fans who have been going for years.
On the pitch, things have gone badly, contrasting to the ‘Champions League football’ that the owners had promised back in 2013. West Ham finished 11th in their first season at the new stadium after some disappointing performances.
To top it all off Dimitri Payet, West Ham’s greatest player for many years, forced a move back to France in January 2017 highlighting the fact that top players weren’t perhaps attracted by a big stadium, this point is reinforced by the countless big players that the owners missed out on, always giving the excuse ‘we really tried’.
Bilic was sacked the season after and the board decided to bring in David Moyes on a 6-month interim contract, this was uninspiring and the club was in a relegation battle, Moyes did do well to steer the Hammers out of trouble but it wasn’t at all what the fans had been promised.
Under Moses’ short reign, fans grew particularly frustrated and in March 2018 there were protests against Sullivan and Gold at the London Stadium during a 3-0 home defeat to Burnley. Coins were thrown at the owners, there were constant chants and one man ran on to the pitch holding a corner flag.
The owners did seem to listen to these protests so they decided to appoint ex-Man City and Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini in Summer 2018. They gave him a huge amount of backing in the transfer market and with the help of Director of Football Mario Husillos, the owners spent £100 million on some talented players.
They backed Pellegrini again in the next Summer after West Ham finished 10th although they probably should have spent more if they wanted the club to really push on as come December 2019 the club sat 17th in the league with Pellegrini sacked.
To make matters worse, the owners have reinstated David Moyes as a manager, this time on an 18-month contract, and while Moyes isn’t a bad manager, the appointment is definitely a step backward. The sacking of Pellegrini came with the sacking of Husillos meaning that once again 70-year old David Sullivan is in full charge of transfers and so far we have already seen one top target slip through the net in Gedson Fernandes.
The fact of the matter is that David Sullivan has shown that he has no idea what he is doing when it comes to transfers. The owners promised to deliver next-level players and match day experience to the London Stadium and they have failed miserably.
It is now West Ham’s fourth season at the London Stadium and they sit in 16th place, just 1 point off the relegation zone. It is certainly time for Sullivan and Gold to sell the club as they will continue to take money from a passionate, historic club while failing to deliver promises.