Declan Rice, world class? Well, what did you all expect? In fact I’m surprised anyone is surprised. We sort of told you so.
It was only the misbelieving Arsenal loons who doubted us, they don’t really deserve him, do they. The way they went out of their way to deride him, us and our European achievement, with Rice as skipper.It was a strange feeling watching Rice score those two amazing free-kicks that destroyed Real Madrid. I actually want the lad to make a success of his career, we were never going to hang onto him anyway.
But like you all, I was wishing that Real stuffed them, just to shut a few gobby Gooner mouths. I suppose we can always hope for one of Real’s amazing comebacks, but Arsenal losing by four? I doubt it.
And it must be mentioned, that only the very best win at the Emirates, us two seasons on the trot I recall!
Of course, on that form Arsenal could well go all the way and Rice would have two European winners medals to his name. And I don’t really begrudge him that. He never gave less that 100 per cent for us, and—say it quietly—David Moyes did a decent job putting him on the way to becoming the player he is. Those goals elevated him to a whole higher level in European and world football terms.
Discovered and persuaded to join West Ham by youth coach Dave Hunt, made at Rush Green and delivered to Arsenal for £100m—another £2.5m if he wins the Champions League—and destined to be England’s captain. Our contribution to the nation. We told you so.
Leaving is never easy, especially after a year of negotiations and what was alleged to be not the best rapport between owner and father. Reece Oxford kept getting mentioned, no wonder there was a stalemate.
But for a full season Rice led from the front, clearly loved every minute of it and still has a great relationship with Mark Noble and his team mates—Jarrod Bowen was one of the first to congratulate his England pal. The one question is, where did those free-kicks come from? Rice had never scored one in his life.
Best bit? The look of stunned amazement on Jude Bellingham’s face. Is it just me who thinks his attitude stinks and he is annoyingly over-rated? I’d take Rice anytime.
OK, so that was one piece of expectation this week. The other is the blindingly obvious return of David Sullivan to head our transfer business as a, call it what you like, Director of Football.
A couple of weeks ago KUMB, in this column, outlined the glaringly obvious outcome following the departure of Tim Steidten, as a divisive technical director. Sullivan has never been a fan of that role, and it is alleged that he and Moyes came to that agreement in the weeks after the Euro’ final in Prague.
The problem was, so they say, Daniel Kretinsky wanted a European style director of football, so in came air miles Tim. It was never going to work, Moyes didn’t want one—although he will have one at Everton—and we had friction from the start.
It is believed that Steidten refused to engage in any negotiations for Scott McTominay (an upgrade on Tomas Soucek) and Harry Maguire (to replace Kurt Zouma), two deals Moyes had set in motion.
McTominay could well win the title in Italy and Maguire will figure in a Europa League quarter-final in Lyon this week.
I have a view on how Sullivan should have handled the aftermath of Prague (you will all be amazed if I didn’t). Our owner should have ignored the hate mob rantings, given Moyes a contract extension after the win in Prague and worked out a way for both to have a say in the transfer dealings.
It may not have worked, but then again three years in Europe deserved some recognition whether you liked Moyes style or not. Three could have become four and we may not have been in what looks like a major financial mess now.
What happened is that bad decisions were made to employ Steidten, Julen Lopetegui and the gang, to oust Moyes, Kevin Nolan and John Heitinga, who is about to coach Liverpool to the title, and too long a delay in appointing Graham Potter.
Yes, I know it is bloody easy sitting in the Bow Bells or Coburn or any other Mile End boozer me and the lads frequent (insert your pub of choice), pontificating on West Ham’s leadership. But dodgy decisions are always that - dodgy. You may or may not agree with me, but that’s where we are.
In almost two years since Prague and the eventual loss of Rice, we are now fifth from bottom, about to be £60/80m in debt with £200m to pay on transfers (not all at once) and with a board claiming poverty (there's three billionaires there, by the way) and more chance of invading Europe than playing in it.
So now we rewind to pre-Slaven Bilic. With Sullivan in charge of transfers, with plenty of fans doubting his ability to do that. Sam Allardyce had it written into his contract that there would be no Director of Football.
Sullivan was heavily involved during Bilic and Moyes’ first tenure, but when Manuel Pellegrini arrived he brought with him his mate Mario Husillos who had a less-than-impressive CV in Spain. The pair also brought with them a worrying amount of nepotism, I hate to mention that is not unknown at West Ham.
Moyes returned, won a cup and achieved some decent league positions, before Steidten landed, literally. Sullivan’s view is that the role is debatable, the last two in post have been far from impressive, so sod it, I’ll do the job myself.
But West Ham fans have lost their trust in Sullivan to do the job. Too much involvement of favoured agents, too many deals that leave a lot to be desired. Sign a striker, anybody?
We have regressed. We are the only Premier League club without a top graded professional in the role of Director of Football. I’ve never believed that owners/chairmen should be anywhere near the jobs done by football professionals. It’s too big now for just the coach/manager to handle.
But Sullivan thinks he knows best. He is once alleged to have said he knows more about football’s transfer market than his manager. Not sure Steve Bruce was pleased with that.
You have to wonder what Potter thinks of this in his quieter moments. When he arrived at West Ham, he must have been aware that he was not Sullivan’s choice. Karren Brady did all the final leg work—her old man is a former team mate and friend of Potter.
Steidten was still in post although everyone knew he was on his way out. Did Potter really expect to have Dan Ashworth as his DoF? Surely not on the money he would have wanted and with a top FA job on the cards.
So did Potter assume a new DoF would be appointed? He’d had one at Brighton and Chelsea. Where we are now is that the usual grifters say recruitment chief Kyle McCauley and Potter will identify targets and Sullivan will get the deals over the line. Hands up anyone who can see the flaws in that, we’ve been here before.
I’m beginning to dread this summer window. We need to shift out a dozen or so players, some on frees so that’s easy, the rest will not be too difficult to move on. I can think of nine that are straightforward. Then there are nine who we would need fees for, that’s the hard part.
As is producing a new look squad for Potter of new signings and youth that give us a decent chance of being competitive. Over to you, Mr. Sullivan.
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