Regardless of the success David Moyes and his players achieved on the pitch this season, there are still gripes about how the club is being run by the owners.
The tag-line amongst fans over the last 12-18 months has been clear – ‘Support the team, not the regime.’ Moyes, the players and the backroom staff are the ones who deserve the credit for finishing 6th in the Premier League and have given fans every reason to be proud of them.
But one 6th placed finish is not going to fix the broken relationship between supporters and GSB. Unfortunately, too much has happened in the past for that to be possible. Everyone else at the club has the fans’ support, but the three decision-makers have so much more to do if they’re going to win back the faith of the very people who form the foundations of this great football club.
But Peterborough United Director of Football, Barry Fry – who was manager of Birmingham City when David Sullivan bought the club in 1993 – sees it differently and has called for fans to stop criticising the owners after such a successful season on the pitch.
He exclusively told West Ham World: “I don’t think fans realise how hard it is. Sullivan and Gold have put in multi-millions again and again and again to keep it going this year.
“They’re football people, they’ve done a marvelous job.
“They [the fans] wanted them out at Birmingham and look what’s happened since. They nearly went through the trap door in the Championship this year, they’ve just gone downhill so fast like a runaway train.
“If they’re not careful, if they [West Ham fans] get the West Ham people out, it could be the same.
“Leave them alone, leave them alone! Support David Moyes and the team. You’re a West Ham supporter, you’re not bothered about the owners you’re bothered about the team!
“They’ve done marvelous, get behind them!”
What Fry doesn’t realise is that’s what the fans have been doing all season. We’ve been right behind Moyes and the team and have given every single one of them the credit they deserve. They’ve made us all so proud and we’ve made that very clear to them.
But where the owners are concerned, it’s going to take so much more. The last five years or so have been a shambles up to this point, and since they bought the club over a decade ago you can count on a few fingers how many successful seasons we’ve had.
The poor decision-making upstairs is what has ultimately led to a relationship that will likely never be salvaged, while on the pitch we’ll continue to cheer the boys on.
