Some of the protests seem to be getting through to David
Sullivan to judge by his video statement on the club website. It’s significant
that he has pledged to restructure the transfer system, though the proof will
be in what happens next summer. It’s not identifying targets which has been the
problem, so much as not getting them after negotiations and not having a
strategy of what type of player to go for. Sullivan says he will be “delegating”
transfer dealings and less open about targets, and appears to have acknowledged
that he shouldn’t be so involved. David Moyes has also said much the same
thing, which is progress if it happens.
The co-chairman also claims that West Ham won’t be signing
players the manager hasn’t seen, which makes you wonder why we ever did this in
the first place. I’m sure Sullivan does want West Ham to win things — the
problem has been that he’s tried to do it on the cheap. Many fans thought that
sacrificing the Boleyn for Stratford meant we’d now be making £50m signings,
although that was never likely. He doesn’t really address the total outlay
issue and we need to know what the budget will be for next summer. Even a few
more Arnie-type players at £24m would help.
The video is also significant in that it contains an
admission that all is not perfect with the new stadium and says the club will
try to address this. Though Sullivan does make a decent point when he says that
the stamping sound generated at home games can be very effective. But we need to know more about the chance of a claret carpet and maybe squaring off the seats.
At least some effort has been made by the owners to address
fans’ concerns. Is it just a PR job? We all hope not.
