The contrasts were obvious, on and off the pitch as new coach Nuno Espirito Santo’s first game in charge of West Ham produced an encouraging point and display at Everton.
On the pitch the energy, effort, running, team spirit, pace and fight were all too obvious from a side clearly intent on impressing their new boss. Let’s be honest, there would have been something badly wrong if that wasn’t the case.
But it was off the pitch that many of the 3,000 sell-out away contingent took time to digest. How can Everton, with all their recent financial problems, have built a superb 52,000-capacity new stadium on the banks of the Mersey while West Ham are rented the increasingly unloved London Stadium?
Coupled with the away fans turning on club owners David Sullivan and Karren Brady, serenading the pair with loud chants that were easily heard on TV, along with a rousing rendition of “Sack the board” as the team produced a welcomed fight back from one down, for Jarrod Bowen to produce his ninth goal in 14 league games to secure a deserved point.
Nuno heard his name chanted at the end when the team came across to applaud the fans. I suppose “Nuno” is a bit easier than “Graham”, has more of a ring about it. Nuno’s arrival has been well documented, Potter sacked during training last Saturday, having had to do that embarrassing Friday press conference.
Times man Martin Samuel tried to explain that away on Sky, stating that it should have been done earlier, but it still looked classless from us, with Brady doing the firing and hiring.
Sullivan, who never wanted Potter in the first place, was nowhere to be seen or heard. Mind you, we’ve seen more than enough from his partner on social media of late to more than make up for that!
It’s water under the bridge now, Nuno was on hand so quickly to do a couple of training sessions and to dump James Ward Prowse from the squad for Everton. It’s a brutal game when you are in the relegation zone and it’s clear the Portuguese coach will do what it takes.
Freddie Potts at last getting some minutes - I’ve said more than once he deserved a crack in the first game of the season after a decent pre-season - but Guido Rodriguez got the nod, another odd, uncertain decision by Potter.
Cryo Summerville was excellent, Malick Diouf outstanding on the left, Mateus Fernandes and Soungoutou Magassa very promising in midfield. Now all Santo has to do is sort out our mistake-ridden defence and sign a striker. Fullkrug was awful, he’s stealing a living at the moment.
I was, still am, a little lukewarm over Nuno. Obviously a good, positive coach. But he’s managed four Premier League clubs now in five years, twice sacked, as well as being axed by Al-Itthad in that time. That’s a concerning spell.
I’ve also never liked the idea of agents having too much control at clubs and with Santo comes supper agent Jorge Mendes, the guy who looks after the careers of Christiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho. He’ll have a big say in who we sign from now on, you’d assume. His discussions with Sullivan on that score will be interesting.
Obviously I want - we all want - Nuno to succeed. Saving us from relegation will be a start. The rest will take care of itself.
So as we all celebrated an unlikely point, the stadium issue became a talking point. Could we have acquired such a stadium, rather than what we now have at Stratford? It’s hard to compare the two business plans, but there is a will and Everton found a way.
Our owners have only been interested in renting. They had the same business plan in Birmingham, wanting to sell St. Andrews and move into the council-owned Alexandra athletics stadium in the north of the city, which was used for the Commonwealth games with temporary seating.
But that never happened and they sold Birmingham and bought West Ham for a song with the same objective at the Olympic Stadium. Complaints by Spurs and Orient over government aid put an end to any thoughts of buying the place, so we ended up with the ‘deal of the century’ for a peppercorn rent and vast cost still to the taxpayers.
Yet we have no naming rights. Hill Dickinson are paying Everton £10m a year and limited revenue from hospitality compared with, say, Spurs. Not owning the ground is making the sale of the club more problematic.
Everton struck lucky. They changed owners to Friedkin Group, who organised the funding with a long-term loan from financial institutions of £350m and are committed to stabilising the club’s finances.
There is also a strong political will behind the whole venture. The regeneration of this part of Liverpool’s old dockland is long overdue. The main tourist area around the Liver building is a mile away and the whole area of the disused docks will now attract hotels and investment, the stadium designated for multi-use.
Transport links need to improve, but that will happen and Everton will grow accordingly.
The ownership of the London Stadium is an issue. The theory that one day the government will give the stadium to the club seems pie in the sky, frankly. To make anything happen in E23 will mean investment from the current board, which seems highly unlikely, or from outside groups, hedge funds or from middle eastern oil, equally unlikely when the ground is not owned by West Ham.
East London’s regeneration has an airport and vast amounts of high end housing, if there was an appetite to build a new stadium elsewhere, the cost and availability of land would be problematic and it needs the will to find a way. And you can’t see that coming from our current board structure.
So Everton will sail on with their new Merseyside home providing the income while West Ham is marooned on the river Lea.
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