Karren Brady announced her immediate departure from West Ham on Tuesday morning after 16-years at the club.
The Vice-Chair has stepped down from her role amid ongoing fan protests against her and David Sullivan’s running of the club over the past decade.
Earlier this week, it was speculated that a boardroom reshuffle could be on the horizon in east London, with both Sullivan and Brady tipped to leave the club in the summer.
That speculation raised more questions than answers, most notably, how that could be done without a takeover, given Sullivan remains the majority shareholder of West Ham.
But with Brady now gone, with five games of the season left to play, some fans are now speculating whether this announcement is deliberate so that Sullivan’s rumoured departure can be announced separately in future. Indeed, there’s no guarantee that that’s the case, but the timing does remain odd.
However, it does possibly suggest something big is happening behind the scenes at London Stadium. It’s also being rumoured in the forums that Brady is not the only departure at board level this week.
Indeed, the forums are currently awash with fans celebrating her long-awaited departure from the club. Large sections of the fanbase have put in a lot of work to orchestrate protests against those running the club, and they’re now beginning to see the fruits of their labour.
One fan even went as far as to say: “Now it’s final boss stage.” That’s obviously referring to Sullivan being next in line to leave.
If not Daniel Kretinsky, who?
But what now? We asked this yesterday amid all the speculation of movement in the summer.
Daniel Kretinsky broke his silence to thank Brady for her contributions to the club, which did seem slightly odd even if he is the second-largest shareholder. He has said previously that investing more into the club is low on his list of his priorities, while UEFA rules prevent him from having any control over footballing operations at the club while he still owns Sparta Prague.
So at this stage, is does seem unlikely that Kretinsky is positioning himself for a full takeover.
As of yet, there’s no indication of who will replace Brady but something is definitely happening that could have monumental implications for the future of the football club.
For so long, there has been a clear lack of direction, strategy and identity at West Ham, and that’s reflected in the move to London Stadium and the club’s failure to build on its success under David Moyes, instead slipping back into battling against relegation just three years after winning a European trophy.
Change at board level means there’s now hope the aforementioned misgivings in the club’s leadership can provide West Ham with a solid foundation to grow and, dare I say it, start operating like a 21st-century Premier League football club.
Brady’s exit will no doubt be celebrated emphatically on Saturday when David Moyes’ Everton come to town, and it puts further pressure on Sullivan, who has now lost his closest ally, to follow her out of the door.
Fans will not rest until the job is done, that’s for sure.
One down, one to go…
