Culture club

Normally the only Brand you want to see associated with West Ham is Russell. Karren Brady has caused some some social media huffing and puffing after appearing to say that West Ham had "no culture" when she arrived. But she was speaking at a Sports Business Summit so we should expect some corporate speak and Brady has tweeted to say that she was referring to the lack of a business culture, which I'm prepared to accept. 

Her full words are reproduced in the Evening Standard: “There were two interesting things about the club. One, it had £100million worth of debt. Two, it had no what I would call culture. At football clubs we don’t make anything, we don’t manufacture anything, we don’t really produce anything other than more players. So getting the culture right, being a place where something is expected of you, having discipline, planning and process and strategy. That wasn’t there.” And she did also say: "The [London] Stadium is not what makes a football club – it’s the people who support it.”

Whatever you think of it, the club certainly has a strategy now, and an extra 22,000 paying fans. Though as in politics, it's events, dear boy, that we have to watch out for. The club might be better at making money but it's the old-fashioned business of spending it badly that appears to be the problem this season — signing too many players with no experience of the Premier League who have mainly under-performed.