Simon Jordan sticks up for West Ham owners Gold & Sullivan
Former Crystal Palace owner turned football pundit Simon Jordan isn’t somebody who’s shy of offering up his opinion, whether you want to hear it or not.
That’s what he’s paid for by talkSPORT, of course, and he often takes the opportunity to fire away at owners, agents and players.
However, he has now shown himself capable of sticking up for people, too, when the mood takes him.
The subject of his defence might surprise some people: West Ham United owners David Gold and David Sullivan.
Jordan has had issues with the two Hammers chiefs in the past, but on this occasion he feels that some of the criticism directed at them has gone overboard.
“It is fair to say that supporter behaviour reflects society and that football should not be held to a greater standard, despite the influence it yields,” he wrote in his column for The Sun.
“Despite the Premier League’s rise as one of the best in the world, owners, management and players are now being put under levels of unreasonable abuse.
“While I’m no fan of co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan at West Ham, the abuse aimed at them because the team are poor and the stadium is not what they want is wrong.”
Is Jordan right?
He has something of a point, yes. When abuse gets personal then obviously it’s wrong, but it doesn’t seem like that has been the case much with the West Ham fans.
Their protests have been against the lack of progress the club has made, the stadium, and the false promises made by the owners.
That’s all fair enough, and it’s not really gotten personal on the most part. There will be exceptions, of course, but their criticism of the two Davids is pretty well justified.
Supporter behaviour in the Premier League does seem like it’s getting progressively worse, but to target the West Ham fans specifically is unfair.
In other West Ham news, a recently appointed member of staff is reportedly only in place for a few more months.