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As cats and pigeons go, our big f***ing German made quite the impact after yet another horror West Ham show in front of their now totally disillusioned fans.

Niclas Fullkrug, previously just an injury prone mistake by Tim Steidten, found himself elevated to legendary status for explaining just ‘how it is’ at West Ham currently, speaking the angry words all too familiar for months in every east London watering hole.




"We’re shit, and we know we are" not to divulge from the current vernacular. Fullkrug may not be quite familiar with “Cat amongst the pigeons”—maybe “Katzen unter den Tauben” may help in his own language (OK,OK, just trying to be a smart Alec, I know).

But we all got it. Graham Potter certainly did when confronted with that sort of rhetoric from one of his players, unusual to say the least from players these days controlled by media types and the “the fans were great and we go again” style of pap interviews.

And of course Sky managed to dig up a couple of no-marks to criticise the German. I mean, Jamie O’Hara! You can’t be serious.

Maybe a little cynical here though, but at the last time of asking we were told that Fullkrug wanted to go home as he couldn’t settle here. If that is still the case, he can make such remarks in a divorced position expecting to be back in the Bundesliga next season.

But it didn’t come across that way. He was angry, upset at what he’d witnessed and made sure everyone knew about it. And the fans loved it.

This is a guy who has played for Germany and Borussia Dortmund so he’s no mug, and not being on the front foot is not something he understands. He spoke the language of our long-suffering fans as this terrible, insulting season drags itself to a welcomed conclusion.

Months of performances like we all had to witness against already-relegated Southampton, statistically one of the worst sides ever evicted on the Premier League. And one that pretty much played us off the park in that second half.

You’ve all seen his outburst by now. The players were ignoring the coach’s directions. We don’t have the ability, presumably in midfield, to take control of a game and attack feeble opposition and that half the side wanted to defend the lead and half wanted to attack.

I forced myself to watch it again in all its gory detail. The sight of nine players standing motionless on the edge of the box as the might of the Saints poured forward was something to behold.




The club ran the interview on their own website, although the bit about lacking ability failed to make the cut. But the fans knew, Fullkrug knew, we are not good enough, we lack pace throughout the side without Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Crysencio Summerville to push up, play a high line and attack sides.

Sinking back, as Fullkrug pointed out, is not acceptable.

What is also not acceptable is what looks like the abandoning of the responsibility to entertain 60,000 plus fans, whether we are playing out a season or not. Three wins in 14 games is doing Graham Potter no good whatsoever. No wins in six matches, one win in the last six home games and allowing Southampton 15 shots against us is not acceptable.

And this growing apathy and annoyance at Potter’s regime - there’s only so long you can say we need a clear out and these are not his players - will worry the board if season ticket renewals are effected and merchandising revenue drops off.

And what of Fullkrug now? Potter has praised him highly, the player has shown touches of genuine talent. He has a four-year contract, cost £30m and is earning £90,000 a week. And he obviously cares. If we can keep him fit we have a decent striker for next season if he can be persuaded to stay, and that contract does give us the edge in any discussions about his future.

But Fullkrug cannot have imagined the can of worms (Buchse der Pandora in German. Sorry I’ll stop now, you can blame Google for all this) he would uncover with those words.

All this goes much deeper than a shoddy football match. We have regressed from European quarter finalists exactly a year ago, from ninth in the table to 17th, with the prospect of being asset-stripped of our best players to fund the refit we’ve been promised. Cash from Europe has disappeared, we’ll lose out maybe £15m on Premier League prize money, we still owe £200m previous transfers and look like being upwards of £60/70m in debt.

So as the season comes to an end, is there any accountability at West Ham? Forget for a moment that we are a football club. Pretty easy at the moment, I know.

Just look at the club as a major business in a competitive market with a £250m turnover. We have clawed our way into the higher echelons of European competitiveness, have been top half of our domestic competitors and have won a major trophy.




Yet we have squandered all that. As Kevin Nolan pointed out, we’ve ”wasted four years of hard work”. Now if this was a listed company with shareholders there would be an outcry at any AGM. Heads would roll at the very top of the company. But it’s not going to happen at West Ham.

The club is almost run as a dictatorship, our owner/chairman has just 38.8% of the shares but stays in control because another major shareholder votes that way, as did her late father. Other major shareholders have very little real input.

Nothing really has changed in the construction of our ownership, over the last few years, apart maybe from someone different at Sullivan towers to freshly squeeze his orange juice at breakfast and butter his croissant.

Nobody is accountable. Managers and coaches get the blame, Technical Directors get the blame, players get the blame. But never the people who eventually decided who to employ and sign the cheques. We don’t have a full time CEO, we don’t have a new Technical Director at the helm - and the owner has decided to do it himself.

The bad decisions were employing Tim Steidten, employing Julen Lopetegui and spending £150m on players who generally have not been good enough. That’s the issue and I no longer accept that the current situation should be blamed on a manager - who had faults - but who kept us in the top half of the PL and won a European trophy. We’ve moved on.

Jacob Steinberg, fan of the club, friend of KUMB and respected writer for The Guardian wrote a very telling article recently which put the blame for the current crisis at the doors of Steidten, Lopetegui and Sullivan for making the wrong decisions. And for Sullivan taking advice from the wrong people.

So history looks like repeating itself with a coach and a recruitment officer working in tandem with Sullivan, and the prospect of favoured agents also involved.

A coach now on the back foot after three dismal months of control facing a summer transfer window without money unless he sells and the prospect of digging out bright young prospects, because with all the will in the world, top players will not want to join a club out of Europe and currently the fourth worst team in the Premier League.

Accountability at the top? You must be joking. See what you’ve started, Niclas...

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