Tuesday, January 19, 2010

New Hammer Heads must back Zola project

On the day a much-loved British institution looks set to pass into the hands of overseas owners (confectioners Cadbury being greedily swallowed with Augustus Gloop-like glee by American food giants Kraft) there are compelling reasons to celebrate the arrival of Davids Sullivan and Gold at another English bastion – West Ham United. However dubious the manner in which they accrued their vast riches, it cannot be denied that both men have made this purchase chiefly from the heart.

The pair, who bring along former Spurs chairman Alan Sugar’s TV pal Karen Brady as Chief Exec were embroiled in a messy divorce from their previous club, Birmingham City; the new regime of Carson Yeung and co. instigating investigations into the big bonuses awarded to Brady and others, before dropping the matter after a brief public spat between the two groups. Their time at the helm of the Second City’s second club was not without controversy and many Bluenoses were glad to see the back of an executive team which they believed to be penny-pinching and self-regarding in equal measure. On the whole, though, Birmingham remain a solvent club and have been left in a far stronger position than when Sullivan and Gold first got their hands on the St Andrews reins in the mid-90s.

The new West Ham administration will not be leveraging huge debts on the East End club (as opposed to the reviled North American owners of Liverpool and Manchester United), but neither will they speculate much on expensive playing purchases – at least if past form is anything to go by. But almost anything will be an improvement on the reckless behaviour of the previous Icelandic owners whose absurdly wrong-headed financial speculation (borrowing against future season-ticket sales, etc) mirrored that of the many failed banks of their now-bankrupt homeland. The shameless profligacy of CB Holdings has left the club with an estimated £100m debt.

Interestingly, the first tentative steps of the Upton Park revolution have been taken with an eye on securing a switch of operations three miles down the road, from the Boleyn Ground to the London Olympic Stadium. Perhaps this was a primary motivating factor behind the purchase, as existing restrictions on the Hammers’ growth would be truly unshackled by such a potentially lucrative move. It is for this reason alone that Sullivan’s claims that: “It makes no commercial sense to buy this club,” should be taken with a large pinch of salt. That there were several other well-regarded parties in at least first-stage negotiations bears testimony to such a conclusion.

Sullivan, though, has already outlined an idea to offer the cheapest tickets in London – citing (pre-Abu Dhabi) Manchester City’s adoption of the Commonwealth Stadium as a precedent. Negotiations with the government and local authorities are sure to begin as soon as possible, as the Daily Sport magnate looks to return East End football “to the people.” Whether such a hypothetically noble principle can be upheld will only become apparent in the coming years.

Talk of a consortia with fellow super-rich supporters such as Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes will be also be welcomed by fans; as a decent-sized investment in not only retaining existing stars such as Matthew Upson, Scott Parker and Carlton Cole, but also in adding fresh blood to a thin and unbalanced squad is vital for the Hammers’ short-term Premier League survival.

Cuts will most likely need to be made among backroom staff, but the new broom would be ill-advised to interfere with the steady progress of the ambitious front-line managerial team of Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke. The pair have made a fine fist of things in straitened times – presenting a side with an attractive style of play, as required by the bubble-blowers in the stands, and forging a tight-knit unit from a host of academy talents (Noble, Tomkins, Stanislas, and the richly-talented Jack Collison) and bargain-basement imports (Franco, Diamanti, Kovac) alongside their established England stars.

Fortunately, Sullivan expounds the theory that he and his long-term colleagues “are not sacking owners.”

“In the 16-and-a-half years we were running Birmingham we only sacked two managers, and one of them, Barry Fry, we regret sacking. So, no, we don't plan to come in and sack Zola.”

Managers of such reputation and genuine esteem come along rarely and, while his tenure to-date has been far from seamless, Zola has already revealed a deep reservoir of potential for a prolonged career in the dugout. The trick for the diminutive Italian is to get positive results while completing the process of on-the-job-learning in his first senior appointment. As far as possible, Sullivan’s reputation for patience must be exercised.

As our prestigious financial institutions have shown – with the right blend of arrogance, incompetence and bloody pig-headedness – no organisation is above a self-wrought fiscal implosion. Whatever their mid-to-long-term future, West Ham fans can at least look forward to a new era of relative stability. Maybe one day they’ll even all look back and laugh heartily at the grotesquely disproportionate pay packets received by Messrs Dyer, Neill, Faubert, Boa Morte, et al. in the profligate late-noughties era. But not for some time yet.

Few will doubt that Sullivan, the brash orator, and Gold, the softly-spoken Del Boy figure from Green Street (both of whom will personally pay Brady’s no-doubt lavish wages for the upcoming 12 months) will fight long and hard to return West Ham United toward something approaching their long-lost glory days. Their grandiose ‘seven-year plan’ (!) incorporates a brand new home and establishment in the top four of the table. As Gold says, the “adventure” begins now.

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