As I look at the influx of foreign owners of Premier league teams, I don’t look at them with anger or hatred, I look at them with jealousy and a sense of longing.
While David Sullivan and David Gold are considerably richer than I will ever be, they are paupers compared to the owners of Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and the like.
While these Sheikh’s and oil barons sit in their ivory towers, counting their millions, using these Premier league clubs as their own personal play things, they also bring a lot of success and silverware because, to be successful, not only do you need a lot of determination and hard work, it also helps to have a pot load of cash at your disposal.
This is not always the case as Wigan proved last year and Portsmouth proved back in 2008. But these fairy tale stories are few and far between.
When Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea back in 2003, he began to splash the cash like no-one had ever seen before in the Premier league. Therefore, expensive players became very expensive and average players became expensive, stretching the budgets of the rest of the Premier League’ clubs. Clubs couldn’t afford to buy quality players any more and that includes West ham.
Now as we move into a new era for the club with the Olympic stadium, we have to ask ourselves whether we want to watch a West ham team full of class and quality, or a West ham team full of average, mediocre players.
There is only one answer to that question and the only way we are going to afford to buy quality is for the two David’s to cash in their chips and sell the club to someone who has the financial clout to take our club forward.
But this has its risks, too. We risk losing our identity and becoming a brand name rather than a football club. No doubt there is a plethora of people who would be willing to buy West ham. People who could afford to buy the worlds best players and pay them crazy wages, but when they got bored of tinkering with our club, we would be left with a mountain of debt.
But I for one, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, am bored with the constant yo-yoing between divisions , and the only thing I have to cheer about is avoiding relegation on the final day of the season yet again.
I’m sure the two Davids love West Ham as much as I do and only want the best for the club, but someone, somewhere out there can take us to the next level, to give us the quality of football that we’ve been craving for all these years, to put some much needed silverware in our practically empty trophy cabinets and put a smile back on the faces of the long suffering fans.
I do appreciate everything the two Davids have done for West ham and all the money they have spent thus far, but at the risk of being greedy, I want more. When I open the paper on a Sunday morning, I want to look at the top half of the Premier league table not just the bottom few places.
I want to look up, not down. I want to feel confident when my team play a team from around us in the league and not watch the game with dread and trepidation. I want to have faith in the manager. I want the owners fund a team that justifies being in an Olympic stadium and, as much as I respect the two Davids as businessmen and as gentlemen, I don’t think that they can provide the fans with a team worthy of the support the fans can give.
I hope I’m proved wrong, but if they ever do sell the club, I hope the buyer is a football fan and a West ham fan, because we deserve it.
