West Ham owners open to offers over potential sale – The Athletic
West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold are open to offers for the club, according to The Athletic.
However, it does not seem as though a deal is likely in the current financial climate due to COVID-19 while The Athletic has also been told by “football deal-makers” that unrealistic asking-fees by owners have also killed off potential sales.
Sullivan and Gold have come under a great deal of pressure by the club’s fans to sell West Ham amid a series of disappointing seasons since moving to the London Stadium.
In the Hammers’ final year at Upton Park, the club finished seventh with Slaven Bilic in charge. In the four seasons that have followed, the Irons have finished in the top-half once with a 10th placed finish in 2018/19.
West Ham have also hired, fired and re-hired David Moyes either side of Manuel Pellegrini’s mixed spell at the London Stadium in that period.
We’ve also seen a spate of seriously underwhelming transfers at West Ham with the club sanctioning big-money deals for the likes of Javier Hernandez, Jordan Hugill, Felipe Anderson, Sebastien Haller and Pablo Fornals without any of them really impressing in East London.
In February, thousands of Hammers fans protested against the leadership at the London Stadium with unrest growing over Sullivan, Gold and Karren Bray’s roles at the club.
Sullivan, Gold and Brady ended up postponing a meeting with the fans amid the protests as they aimed to overhaul the club’s Official Supporters Board.
Those protests earlier this year were rather tame compared to the scenes we saw in March 2018 when supporters invaded the pitch and tried to storm the directors’ box in the 3-0 defeat to Burnley.
West Ham went out and spent a lot of money the following transfer window, including a club-record deal worth up to £45million for Haller.
Hammers fans do seem to be able to get what they want out of Gold and Sullivan when they take action but their efforts to sell the club in this financial climate may fall on deaf ears.
In other West Ham news, David Moyes has reacted to Vladimir Coufal’s performance against Leicester.