Simon Jordan slams approach of West Ham bidders PAI Capital
PAI Capital are looking to buy West Ham United, but Simon Jordan cannot understand why they have brought Rio Ferdinand on board.
Former chief executive of Queens Park Rangers Philip Beard is heading up the consortium, and he has told talkSPORT that a second bid is on the cards.
Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan is questioning the way PAI Capital are going about trying to buy West Ham, though, scrutinising their motives and style.
“Sitting on talkSPORT is not the way you buy a football club, buying football clubs is finding some sort of accord with the owners and using professional people to do it,” the former Eagles chief said (as transcribed on talkSPORT’s official website).
“My understanding is you’ve put a proof of funds in as a letter saying you’ve got the funds without a great deal of qualification behind that.
“I would have suspected there is an element of naivety about people you’ve bought into your consortium with Rio Ferdinand and Anton Ferdinand. Rio Ferdinand has been advocating all summer that Declan Rice be sold to Manchester United, so there’s a little bit of naivety in bringing him into the mix.
“The notion of trying to buy a football club and dragging the current owners into the public domain over an unsightly sentiment of who has made an offer and how much that was for, whether that offer was put in place.
“I’ve had a conversation with a couple of them, it’s fair to say I’m no cheerleader for David Gold and David Sullivan. I know perfectly well what they are capable of, but it’s their business.”
Wrong move
Rio spent eight years at West Ham and played five years for the first-team, but he does not speak for us.
The former centre-back is a Manchester United legend, and bringing him on board in an attempt to buy the London Stadium outfit is an own goal on its own.
Having won just the UEFA Intertoto Cup with us in 1999 and won six Premier League titles and a Champions League with the Red Devils, we understand that Ferdinand will always see himself as a Man Utd man.
It is just logic and we are not against his decision.
However, PAI Capital should have known better had they done their homework properly.
There are plenty of Hammers legends they could have recruited for help, and they would not have been lacking for quality options.
While it would not have any major impact on their attempt to buy the club, they got his one PR move wrong.
Parting with an offer David Sullivan and David Gold cannot reject is the only way PAI Capital are going to have any chance of completing a takeover, and their second bid has to be a huge one.
In other West Ham news, Hammers man makes transfer admission live on talkSPORT.
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