Now let's see what you are made of Mr.Sullivan

Not really been your day, mate, has it? Not even your last few months really. But let’s just concentrate of the week in hand.

You may have wanted the eventual departure of David Moyes and all his staff to be a controlled, dignified exit, with you seemingly in full control. Chance would be a fine thing.

In fact, it looks like just another day in the circus that is West Ham. No manager, no coaching staff, no director of football/recruitment officer. Not even a board all singing from the same page.

Oh, and one of your potential new managers, the one that Jorge Mendes offered up for you on a plate, seems to have decided to stay where he is in war-torn Ukraine, seems safer there than Stratford.

All I can say now pal, is you had better have this next bit under control, because the transfer window is about to open and it looks like you are standing on your own at the sharp end of the Titanic singing 'My heart will go on' in best Celine Dion style.



You just knew something was afoot when Ken Dyer’s exclusive in the Evening Standard mid-morning said Moyes would tell you to stick any offer of a job because he felt he had been very poorly treated. (At this point I refer you to the KUMB piece last week about saying thanks.)

Ken is the best around when it comes to West Ham, he has been covering the club since the more dignified days of John Lyall. So the piece was spot on.

It took what looked like an hour for the club to push out a statement saying Moyes, Alan Irvine, Stuart Pearce and Billy McKinlay had also left. And this less than 24 hours after your fellow joint chairman David Gold had said he would be happy if Moyes stayed on because he admired his professionalism. You wonder sometimes who writes these scripts.

And no wonder Moyes got the hump. He was dumped out "on the street" as he put it at midnight on Sunday, with the euphoria of the win over Everton still fresh in all our minds.

Probably few of us really expected Moyes to get the gig full time even at that point, so much poison had been put down in previous weeks. But it could have been handled so much better.

First we are told, via Sky (who else) that you have had a meeting with Moyes on Monday and it was highly unlikely he would get the job. Some media outlets suggested that the meeting was your usual one of the manager on a Monday, ignoring in fact that you didn’t actually employ him any longer.

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Other outlets said it was a "thank you" chat and to come back in a week, just in case we hadn’t managed to land the big name to take us to the next level.

Then we find out it was just a phone call. And guess what, it was leaked. You made that call to Moyes, and guess who was on air that morning, well Jim White of course. Just saying. No wonder Moyes wanted a change of culture.

And not long after that call, Paulo Fonseca was being driven into Sullivan Towers for a chat, with Mendes in tow. That may well have been the point when Moyes lost the plot.

He knew, however, that he was probably soon to be history on Sunday evening; he’s a big boy, he knows the game so nothing should surprise him. Sullivan was looking for a replacement. That’s life.

But then Gold is on his feet telling folk he would be happy for Moyes to stay. Then the Standard's story followed by West Ham’s statement.

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Now we have all been wishing and hoping for a brave new world, a top manager, to take us on. Moyes may well have earned another year or two, but that’s life, as I said.

Fonseca was interesting. No really big time experience, but seemingly well thought of and with a very influential agent who has helped Wolves to win promotion who could easily have opened the way to some decent signings for us.

Fonseca has done well at Shakhtar Donetsk, admittedly with a big club in a very ordinary league. Dynamo Kiev and that’s about it. Not able to use their stadium because of the war does not seem to have handicapped Fonseca, who more importantly did well in the Champions League and registered a win over Manchester City.

He had an OK spell at Porto before being axed for being third… but then did well to turn Braga into a force. That’s the club with the rock face behind one goal, a small town but one that acquired a reputation under Fonseca for flowing, attacking football helped by an abundance of Brazilian talent.

But after his chat with Sullivan, Fonseca returned to Ukraine and now there’s stories that he has agreed a new two year contract there. Was Sullivan about to appoint him in the wake of Moyes’ departure? We will never know.

So now it looks like another crack at Rafa Benitez, with Manuel Pellegini seemingly too expensive and not in the bright, young, exciting category. But then neither is Rafa!

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We can only hope that Sullivan now gets this right and has someone with class, integrity and skill in place sometime next week before the World Cup build up starts in earnest. Blimey, there’s so much to do.

Players going, lots needed, season tickets to sell, experienced old hands at the club to be placated. And Sullivan needs to do one thing, as far as I am concerned. He must dispel the suggestion that he is acting on fans’ advice.

He is supposed to have told Moyes on Monday that it was the fans who wanted a new face. I have touched on this before, fans’ forums, blogs, polls, even pressure from fans’ groups, are all well and good.

Polls are fun. We have done one, several of our website colleagues have done them. They are fun. They should not be leading the club’s owner by the nose as if he is frightened to make a decision without upsetting someone.

But tomorrow’s another day. Another manager as a target, more players being linked. Tedious isn’t it?

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