muskie
5:34 Tue Jan 28
Re: Accounts released for year ending 2019
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Matt Law's take on the accounts. Paywall so posted in full.
It is 10 years since David Sullivan and David Gold outlined their plan to take West Ham United into the Champions League over a seven-year period and yet the last line of their bold statement has been reiterated in the latest set of accounts.
“The short-term plan is all about survival and getting behind the team,” said co-owner Sullivan at the end of his 2010
vision of a West Ham utopia in which he had also pledged to “spend a lot of money.”
On the eve of a game against unbeaten Premier League leaders Liverpool that could see West Ham drop into the bottom three on goal difference, Sullivan and the club’s board could easily have hit Ctrl X and Ctrl V on his 10-year-old remark in the financial accounts to 31 May 2019.
Instead, however, the group used far starker language to warn supporters of the potential consequences of relegation
by saying: “Retention of our status in 2019-20 season is an absolute necessity for the future well being of the club.”
The report also added: “The group’s principal risk remains that of the football club being relegated … with the serious
financial consequences which follow.”
Sullivan may not have been too worried when the statement and his own comments were signed off in October, when West Ham were yet again dreaming of the top four rather than facing a third relegation battle in four years since moving to the London Stadium.
West Ham have posted financial losses of £28.2m, although Sullivan and Gold were paid a combined £2.9m in interest in August 2019 on their loans to the club. A further £1m was paid to GGI international, a company related to Gold, in respect of a partial repayment of loan capital. The highest-paid director at the club was the vice-chairman
Karren Brady, whose salary increased from £898,000 to £1.136m.
Sullivan attempted to justify West Ham’s losses by saying: "The board made a decision at the beginning of 2018 to embark on an investment programme that would involve bringing in a world class manager, investing in better players and making
significant investment in the club's infrastructure.
“We now believe we have one of the strongest squads and management teams in the Premier League.”
Since writing those comments, the “world class manager”, Manuel Pellegrini, has been sacked and replaced by David Moyes, who had been deemed the wrong man to take West Ham to the supposed next level after steering them away from relegation two years ago.
It is telling that, despite the club supposedly investing in “better players”, Moyes is once again having to largely rely
on 32-year-old captain Mark Noble to try to pull the club out of trouble.
Among the players Sullivan said cost West Ham £107.9m in the summer of 2018 was Jack Wilshere,
who joined on big wages and has still only managed six Premier League starts because of long-standing injury problems.
Carlos Sanchez had been a flop at Aston Villa and may now be allowed to leave the London Stadium before
the transfer window shuts on Friday night, having appeared slower than West Bromwich Albion’s Boiler Man mascot
during 45 minutes last Saturday.
Lucas Perez left last summer after managing four league starts, while Andriy Yarmolenko has spent more time
in the treatment room than on the pitch.
Last summer’s business, which is not included in the latest set of accounts, does not make pretty reading, either.
Roberto arrived on a two-year deal, but has already been packed off on loan to Alaves after making a strong bid for
the title of worst-ever Premier League goalkeeper in his 10 appearances.
The £8m that was spent on striker Albian Ajeti, a player Moyes admitted to knowing nothing about when he returned, looks like money the club will never get back.
Striker Sebastien Haller has struggled to justify his club record £45m price tag, which may not be a surprise to
Eintracht Frankfurt fans who watched him score most of his goals in a front two or forward three, rather than in
the lone striker role the Hammers earmarked for him.
West Ham are frantically trying to boost their squad in the final days of the transfer window. Defensive midfielder
Tomas Soucek is joining from Slavia Prague, with the club still hoping to add a right-back and possibly another
forward to their squad. But who would trust the latest trolley-dash to prove successful?
Other than players, Moyes is also looking for some help. On the staff section of the West Ham website, there are just
three pictures of Moyes, Alan Irvine, who returned as his assistant, and goalkeeper coach Xavi Valero, who was already at the club.
The Hammers dispute the claim of Stuart Pearce that his return to work under Moyes was vetoed by the club’s board
because of critical remarks he made on a radio station, while links to Alan Stubbs and Joe Cole have amounted to nothing.
But wherever the truth lies, Moyes has completed his first month back at West Ham largely on his own and the Scot
has done an admirable job of putting a brave face on for the cameras that are set up each week in a temporary building
at the club’s Rush Green training ground for pre-match press conferences.
West Ham, in their accounts, insist they have invested £22m on infrastructure over the past four years, £5.5m a year, and yet it is hard to see too much evidence of it. Just as it is hard to see any indication that Sullivan, Gold and Brady will ever deliver on their long-term pledges, rather than having to revert to all-too familiar short-termism.
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