Maybe it's a bit trite to say it's a surprise anyone is really surprised about the worsening West Ham crisis, the whole circus from transfers, finances, even the future of the man who must be the most hated club owner in the country.
It's all come to a head these past few days following the horrific opening day defeat at Sunderland that exposed the glaring problems on the playing side to an unforgiving spotlight. From then on it's been the club's worsening financial issues, the failure to strengthen the squad and compete in the transfer market place and the savage slashing of the wage bill.
Something like £30m plus has been axed annually from playing staff wages from all levels, 19 players have been freed, had their loans ended or loaned out. It was supposed to be a careful, constructive rebuilding by head coach Graham Potter but looks more and more now like a desperate fire sale to cut costs.
You have to wonder how much Potter really knew about how bad things were and how many times he has had to adjust his objectives this summer. Don't forget he ended last season saying there was going to be a busy summer. He had plans, but he ended up fielding a side at Sunderland with only two new faces from last season.
They tried to work without the usual agents, they tried a new modern recruitment department, but they still ended up with Wilson and Brady saying on that podcast that ' we can't sign players that the coach does not want.' The question being, who is also recommending players to Potter, what's the point of Kyle Macaulay and his staff if the usual suspects are interfering.
But weeks down the line we are being told that bids have gone in, maybe two signings, as we try to recover so much lost time and position in the market.
Not one player whose contract was up this summer has been retained. The red warning signs were there for all to see if you were paying attention. And that was before the Edson Alvarez issue, where fans started to realise we were desperately trying to loan a player on £115,000 a week to do anything to help Potter acquire desperately needed midfield upgrades.
So much for the world class stadium and world class team we were promised, but that didn't stop Baroness Brady appearing on a tame radio podcast to state everything was cushty, the owners were not going anywhere anytime soon and the whole move to Stratford had been a glorious success.
Mulling over this inventive sleight of hand as you do, a lovely youthful picture of Frank McAvennie and Mark Ward appeared on my screen, both of whom signed for West Ham in the summer of 1985, 40 years ago.
Two players who epitomised the pace and attacking splendour that was to become the Boys of '86, and it struck me that this summer has been epitomised by having an injury prone, ageing Callum Wilson thrust upon us.
Now we are hoping to push Alvarez out on loan to Fenerbache, exactly how much of his wages will we still pay? The suggestion is none of it, with the Turkish club having an option to buy at the end of the season.
It's an unusual cash set-up, if true. Usually when we loan to Europe—Max Cornet to Genoa for instance—we still end up paying a large chunk of the wages. When his loan ended and Genoa wanted to sign him, it collapsed because of his high wages.
Now the Alvarez move has hit home like a sledgehammer to many fans, who slowly realised just what we were having to resort to while the rest of the Premier League were snapping up £25m young, exciting midfield players at an alarming rate. Some who we have been linked with and have now been snapped up by the likes of Nottingham Forest.
Of course the complaint is that the elite are splashing too much cash. But Liverpool have just completed £200m of outgoing transfers, covering their upfront outlay on new faces. I think I mentioned last week that we have made a profit on seven players in ten years.
Alvarez may be erratic and has seemingly not always see eye-to-eye with the last three managers, but he captained Mexico to the Gold Cup, was voted the tournament's best player, but hasn't got a sniff since he returned.
Benched on Saturday at Sunderland and finding Andy Irvine used ahead of him as a late substitute when we were getting royally stuffed must have been the last straw. No wonder there was those alleged angry noises from our dressing room.
And that's how it sits with a shocked fan base, who now see that we have to get a player out any way we can to allow Potter any room to work in the market. It'll be interesting to see who we bring on on such meagre funds. I'll wait.
It doesn't take much for the simmering hatred of Sullivan and Brady to come to the surface, and the financial contortions of this transfer window are now sharply in focus. The only player we got any money for was Mo Kudus, who Brady reckoned didn't have that great a season last term, so let's move on. That £55m came at just the time we had to pay back the £40m Barclays loan, and just days before a new loan was taken out.
But the restraints haven't really come off. We should have guessed when season ticket holders were offered a couple of priority points if they renewed early. Cash flow again needed, clearly.
We were told we had to sell to buy, but half-a-dozen 30-somethings on good contracts and big money have been very hard to shift. So the Alvarez cash is needed with just a fortnight of the window left, and coming on the back of that terrible opening day defeat at Sunderland.
It did nothing to lift the heat on Sullivan. Social media is awash with demands that he sells up, threats of another Burnley, claims that he has shamed the club with his tenure and style of ownership.
Do I think there will be serious protests? Frankly I doubt it, we are now a 'tourist' dominated London Stadium crowd, and I doubt tourists have a clue about what we are or even who McAvennie and Ward were. Tourists don't fight, do they?
Mind you, neither did our team at the Stadium of Light. I've watched it back, cold sober, and the first half hour was decent, good possession, slow yes, but we had a couple of good chances. From then on it was a mind-numbing mess.
Why did Potter select Guido Rodriguez ahead of Freddie Potts, who had done a decent job throughout the US tour? Why select James Ward-Prowse in an attacking midfield role when his pace was going to be exposed? Was Potter trying to make a point about the two midfielders he wanted to buy?
It's a strange position for the head coach. He's had to praise the signing of Wilson and say he was happy with the window, explaining you have to work within financial issues. Basically saying the right things as his boss moves all the goalposts. What else was he expected to say?
Potter is now getting stick from fans after just one game. A poll even on his sacking, not surprisingly coming from the grifters out there on social media who are prone to following the Sullivan party line.
Anyway, let's see what Potter and Macaulay can come up with in the final days of the window. We all wait daily don't we, for that puff of white smoke!
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