West Ham sent Karren Brady to meet with fed-up fans after a vote of no confidence in the board and now David Sullivan’s West Ham exit has been mapped out by a journalist.
Hammers supporters have been rallying to demand change at the very top of the club.
West Ham fans are planning protests aimed specifically at David Sullivan and Karren Brady ahead of forthcoming games against Crystal Palace and Brentford.
The club’s owners agreed to send a board representative to meet with supporters on Thursday night, almost two weeks after the West Ham United Fan Advisory Board wrote to directors Sullivan, Daniel Kretinsky, Albert Tripp Smith and Vanessa Gold, to issue a “vote of no confidence” in their management of the Hammers.
The letter contained a long list of grievances and issues and called for the appointment of ‘top quality professionals to run West Ham on a daily basis to finally fulfil the unrealised potential that those same executives have claimed our club has’.
Fan group says West Ham’s owners are taking them seriously
It was Brady who was sent to meet supporters, who insist they made their points in a frank and professional manner.
The West Ham United Independent Supporters Committee say the meeting proved the owners are taking things seriously.
It was also suggested Brady could be considering her future when one fan asked whether the vice-chair will be resigning.
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The committee stated they were awaiting clarification over Brady’s West Ham future following the meeting.
West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady watches on from the director's box at the London Stadium
Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images
There are essentially two outcomes as the end goal for West Ham fans now.
The Fan Advisory Board is calling for wholesale changes in how the club is run.
If Sullivan, Kretinsky and co cannot or will not bend to the realistic demands then a takeover seems the only viable option for a bright, harmonious future at West Ham.
Key to all of that will be Sullivan, the club’s majority owner.
The Hammers chief is the primary target of West Ham fan ire as frustrations have slowly bubbled back to the surface following protests and pitch invasions in 2018 and 2020.
Ill-feeling and unrest has never gone away but drastically improved results and the European adventures under David Moyes bought Sullivan time.
Instead of using that time – and extra revenue coming into the club – to address some of the wider issues that have angered fans, such as the club’s training facilities and problems with the stadium both structurally and in terms of ticketing and stewarding, West Ham’s owners put their heads in the sand.
Sullivan’s West Ham exit mapped out
Fans were told the stadium move would enable West Ham to compete with the leading clubs in the transfer market.
So it is little wonder supporters have reached breaking point when West Ham pleaded PSR poverty in the summer and claim £100m plus losses are on the horizon.
Especially as it comes just two years after selling Declan Rice for £105m and off the back of three consecutive seasons in Europe and the club’s only major trophy in the last 45 years.
Now Sullivan’s West Ham exit has been mapped out as a journalist drops a secret coup claim.
The Hammers have been linked with a number of takeovers over the years.
Especially since the arrival of Czech billionaire Kretinsky in November 2021 and following the decision of the Gold family to put their stake on the market in October 2023.
But as yet none of them have come to fruition.
After the disastrous start to the new season at Sunderland, vice-chair Brady insisted West Ham’s owners were not going anywhere.
But seeing Daniel Levy forced to step down at Spurs has given fed-up West Ham fans hope they can force Sullivan out.
West Ham majority owner David Sullivan spotted watching the women's team in the FA Cup semi-final in 2019.
Photo by James Chance/Getty Images
The difference between the two clubs is Levy was merely chairman and essentially the Brady of the Tottenham operation.
Whereas Sullivan is West Ham’s Joe Lewis – and Tottenham fans are seeing how difficult it is to force the ENIC head to sell up.
Now a journalist with strong connections to Sullivan has outlined what it would take for 77-year-old Sullivan to depart.
Jacob Steinberg claims there is little chance Brady will resign.
But he states that ousting Sullivan may happen if the other shareholders, such as Kretinsky, turn on him and demand change.
Steinberg then suggests a secret coup may even happen behind closed doors but that ultimately Sullivan’s power means he must be the one to ultimately decide whether he continues or stands down.
Journalist drops secret coup claim at West Ham
“Nobody directs Sullivan,” Steinberg said in The Guardian.
“Barring a coup orchestrated by other shareholders the question is simply whether Sullivan ever decides to walk away. This is how it is.
“Sources say that Brady, who met the FAB for talks on Thursday, is not about to resign. As it stands, one path forward is for others on the board to come together and demand change.
“But the fact that the Gold family put a proportion of their shares up for sale almost two years ago, without a deal being struck, suggests they are not looking to take control. Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire and owner of Royal Mail, and Tripp Smith, the US businessman, seem content to remain minority investors.
“There has been no public rocking of the boat. Perhaps it will all take place silently and secretly.”
Disillusioned Hammers fans will not like Steinberg’s further claim that there is little prospect of them forcing Sullivan and Brady out.
Given the strength of feeling brewing in east London that is not going to deter supporters from trying.