David Sullivan made a bold claim about the West Ham United team last week, but is he deluded?
West Ham co-owner David Sullivan
David Sullivan is very much a Marmite figure among West Ham supporters.
He and fellow co-owner David Gold were full of promises to fans ahead of their move to the Olympic Stadium last summer.
A torrid first half of the season has improved although form has dipped again of late with the Hammers now sat in 11th place in the Premier League table.
Issues at the new stadium have driven a wedge between factions of supporters and the club’s board.
A terrible summer of transfer business has not helped either with fans left disgruntled over what they feel are broken promises when it comes to West Ham’s dealings in the transfer market.
Supporters were promised big money, marquee signings as they made the move to Stratford in the summer.
Indeed the ability to compete with the Premier League elite as a result of the stadium move was held up as a carrot to fans dubious over the decision to leave the club’s famous Boleyn Ground home of 112 years.
Most supporters accept it takes time to build.
But Sullivan and Gold have left many fans – 52,000 of whom signed up to their vision by purchasing season tickets for their new home, second only to Manchester United – reeling with their lack of ambition.
Sullivan took to the club’s official website last week and insisted the side were just “a couple of players off having a very, very good side.”
Sullivan and David Gold
“I believe we are only a couple of players short of having a very, very good side, and I can promise that we will be working extremely hard again in the summer to achieve that objective,” Sullivan told whufc.com.
That was met with derision in some quarters while Gold followed it up by tweeting Bilic had his strongest squad of the season available for the game against Bournemouth at the weekend.
So all Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at the Vitality Stadium served to do was prove Sullivan is deluded if he truly believes the Hammers require just a couple of reinforcements.
West Ham United players look dejected after the game
Of course it depends on the quality of player the club signs.
But given the fact the Hammers did not or could not improve their squad sufficiently this season and have now lost Dimitri Payet, then Bilic will need a lot more from his owners if he is to push on next season.
Increased income, player sales, the record TV deal and the sale of Upton Park should mean the club has over £100 million to spend in the summer.
But supporters are sceptical whether they will ever see that kind of money spent by the current owners especially after Bilic’s squad was diluted by a glut of poor quality loans or free transfer signings last summer having been promised so much.
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