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In the end he went of his own volition and if not exactly on his own terms, certainly in a manner of his choosing.

David Sullivan ended his 16-year tenure as Chair of West Ham United by resigning as both a Director and Co-Chair of the club in a move that came as a significant surprise to almost everybody. Supporters awoke to the news on 6 June and copies of his termination from the club's list of active Directors as filed at Companies House were soon circulating on line.




At the time of writing he remains a shareholder with 38.8% of the club's shares being held by himself and family trusts. Significantly, given yesterday’s announcement that Daniel Kretinsky, representing 1890 Holdings, had increased their shareholding to 43%, it means David Sullivan is no longer the club's largest shareholder. Crucially, Vanessa Gold has pledged to vote with 1890 Holdings on important matters; the combined shareholdings of the two parties takes them past the 50% mark.

Mr. Sullivan's departure came as news broke that the BBC were due to screen an episode of Panorama detailing serious allegations about his personal life from a time that preceded his Chairmanship of West Ham United. Mr. Sullivan has strenuously denied the allegations, claiming them be to factually incorrect and he had resigned in order to concentrate on clearing his name.

His departure though surely brings down the curtain on the career of one of English football's most colourful characters to have occupied the Boardroom hotseat. By the time he resigned, David Sullivan had been a football club Chairman for over 30 years and his tenure at West Ham United was exceeded by only Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. In a fiercely competitive industry, David Sullivan had outlasted almost everybody, a remarkable achievement when his trophy tally of one was all Birmingham City and West Ham United had to show for his time with them.

While it would be unfair to describe his time as Chair of West Ham United as a total failure, delivering as it did 14 full seasons as a Premier League club, three seasons of European competition and one trophy, the club had undeniably failed to deliver on the raised expectations that were the price of the move to the London Athletics stadium, the decision that defined his era. Ultimately it was that failure that saw the club's Fan Advisory Board deliver their devastating assessment of the clubs strategic direction that saw them issue a vote of no confidence in the club's senior executive.

That was the trigger for a second successive season of protests from groups led by Hammers United and underpinned by support from almost every supporters group, fan website, blogger and vlogger. The first of those two seasons saw an attempt by the club to diminish the value of concession tickets defeated by a campaign of black balloons being released match after match.

This season, the traditional 'red card' protests returned and the 'No More BS' campaign – proof that great marketing ideas needn’t cost a fortune – built the pressure on the club's senior executives. It’s fair to say that, by the end of the season, there were more people protesting inside the London Stadium than were not.

In amongst all of that a couple of successful, hugely supported, protest marches were proof positive that it wasn’t just noise from half-a-dozen people in a pub. Banners offering helpful advice to the Chair were raised aloft at the London Stadium and Burton Albion fans were treated to a fly past when we met them at the Pirelli. The BBC and other major media outlets were now running with the protest stories every time West Ham United were mentioned. It was a comprehensive media campaign from West Ham United supporter groups, utterly relentless and devastatingly effective. And not one pitch invasion, not one law broken.

Arriving during the 2009/10 season with the club in a perilous league position, David Sullivan was quick to point out the Club's financial issues. While containing an element of truth, it failed to acknowledge the work undertaken by the then Finance Director, Nick Igoe, and the soon to be gone then CEO, Scott Duxbury, in selling just about any player with a pulse to keep the club afloat.

That action was necessary following the collapse of the Icelandic ownership business interests as a result of the banking crisis. The first team management team of Steve Clarke and Franco Zola had, by hook or by crook, kept the team out of the bottom three despite being shorn of many of the club's better players to settle bills. A job well done, given the circumstances and the club narrowly avoided relegation.




Upon their arrival, David Sullivan and his long time business partner David Gold injected £24m of equity into the club, and that season the net cash outflow was just £2.5m. The ship had essentially been stabilised and to put that £24m figure in context, Manchester City spent £22m to recruit Joleon Lescott from Everton that season.

West Ham United owed other clubs just £11m for players we had signed prior to the arrival of David Sullivan and David Gold. We may never know the precise number the club owes other clubs and lenders at the time of David Sullivan's departure, but some estimates put the figure at over £250m. In the time honoured tradition we started out with almost nothing and, 16 years later, still have most of it left.

In fairness to the new ownership, they were very clear from day one and stated they saw the Olympic Stadium that was being built at Stratford as a potential opportunity, and that such were the club's finances they would welcome additional investors to come on board. In time we saw the 10% stake of the club that was held by Straumer Bank, which came about as a result of them providing the liquidity to keep the club solvent ahead of Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Gold ‘s arrival, be acquired by Albert Tripp-Smith.

A decade or so after that, in November 2021, major new investment arrived in the form of Daniel Kretinsky and 1890 holdings. Significantly, the arrival of Mr. Kretinsky saw new shares being issued by the club and that provided the funds that coincided with the club's three-year European campaign.

In the years in between and following the departure of the management team inherited from previous ownership, the club has shuffled the pack in the dugout numerous times in the past 16 years with nine changes and eight different managers being given a turn. A major criticism of the Sullivan era has been the lack of consistency in the type of football played from one manager to the next. This resulted in new players being required for the new tactics and preferences of a manager playing the game a different way. Money was draining out of the club, season after season.

In total, some 207 players have made their debut from either the Academy or as new signings in the past 16 years and while there are few legitimate complaints as to the amount of money invested in the playing squad, the value of too many of the players signed has been questionable, with far too many being bought and moved on for a loss in rapid succession. To best illustrate the impact the changes in the dugout have had, consider the fact that Ollie Scarles has played for four different managers despite making just 34 appearances for the club. (The late Billy Bonds had just two bosses in a 799 game career with West Ham United.)

For all of the turnover in playing and managerial staff, on the pitch success was relatively limited, the club finishing in the top eight of the Premier League on just three occasions and supporter frustration grew as opposition clubs with considerably fewer resources starting to outperform West Ham United regularly. Increasingly the methodology being deployed by the club under Mr. Sullivan's stewardship was viewed as "an analogue capability in a digital world".

The Club's training facility at Rush Green, whilst established during the Chairman's tenure (the land having being acquired the season before his arrival) would best be described as "functional" when compared with those being developed by peer group clubs.

In a game of fractions, marginal differences add up and whether it is training facilities or investment in recruitment analysts, West Ham United have resembled a club participating as a last resort rather than embracing new ways of working. The club have continued with a strategy of agent-led recruitment when more nimble competitors have moved wholesale into data driven recruitment, for little obvious reason other than the Chair enjoying the cut and thrust of negotiating with agents and doing deals. Spending money is not the same as investing money.




The high point of his time as Chair was undoubtedly the night of European glory in Prague but, incredibly, and for reasons few could understand, he was announcing to the world less than 24 hours later that the team captain and star player, Declan Rice, would be sold. It wasn’t that the news came as any great surprise to supporters but the timing of the announcement was poorly judged.

While many were still celebrating the winning of our first trophy for over 40 years, others were questioning what was the point of moving the club from the Boleyn Ground to Stratford, if the same well -trodden path of selling our best players was continuing?

That was perhaps the moment when even those who were sat at the back of the class grasped that the move to a stadium, completely over-sold in terms of what it would bring to the club ,was essentially for nothing. Longer walks from the station, longer queues to get in, longer distance from the pitch, but the time it takes for a star player to reach the exit ramp was no different to when Martin Peters went to White Hart Lane.

Never change West Ham and despite the change of address, it hadn’t. The club, and English transfer record fee of £105m, including the ever popular “add ons”, will be of no consolation to West Ham United supporters should Arsenal's Declan Rice achieve World Cup glory a month from now.

Rice is, undisputedly, top drawer: a player to build a club around let alone a team and it’s telling he did not believe West Ham United would be able to fulfil his professional ambitions. Supporters know the difference between good and great and few have any doubt he was destined for a spot on our Mount Rushmore.

West Ham United's decline has escalated rapidly following the sale of Rice with the proceeds recycled into the signing of too many players of dubious value and poor decisions being made over managerial appointments. A club, which in fairness had never over extended itself throughout David Sullivan’s reign, suddenly started spending money like drunken sailors, awarding contracts of an absurd duration.

In a sport where a single challenge can reduce a player's ability so as to make them incapable of performing at the highest level, the escalation of risk in the awarding of some contracts was borderline reckless. Even the simple loss of form or confidence of a player can have devastating consequences if they have a seven-year contract that cannot be moved to another club. The fine line between a playing asset and a financial liability is remarkably thin.

Results failed to match the financial outlay and before long the rot was setting in, the managerial merry-go-round was in full swing and the protests started, resulting in the Chair, in his final appearance at the London Stadium leaving his seat early to a cacophony of angry supporters chanting unpleasant songs as the club slid into the Championship for the second time on his watch. By now, he knew he was deep in trouble, the club financially over-extended, the club's revenue streams under pressure, mounting supporter unrest, the hammer blow of the BBC allegations being the final straw.

That second relegation provides empirical proof Sullivan leaves the club in a worse position than he found it, facing significant financial challenges, a hollowed out executive team, an interim CEO in situ and absolutely no structure in place to handle the enormous turnover of players that will be required this summer. There is considerable speculation, some of it clearly well informed, the club needs to sell over £100m of players by the end of this month. Meanwhile Mr. Sullivan retains his 38.8% stake against a backdrop of the possibility of having to answer questions that may be presented by the IFR.




The Regulator, who while having the legal power to force a divestment in extreme circumstances, must surely be hoping common sense prevails and that those shares can be sold, should a buyer for them be found, without intervention being necessary. It’s possible there may be ongoing negotiations between Mr. Kretinsky and Mr. Sullivan regarding this matter, with maybe only a difference in valuation being the stumbling block.

Two banners were held aloft months ago in the London Stadium suggesting it was time to sell and for a price to be named - and how Mr. Sullivan must wish he had heeded that well intentioned advice since today's price , as a Championship club, will surely be lower.

A sale of his shares would establish a clean break for all parties, and Saturday's joint statement from Daniel Kretinsky and Vanessa Gold, supported by Tripp Smith and other minority shareholders was an indication the club had plans to move forward, a clear signal the David Sullivan era at West Ham United was over.

Meanwhile the club, having retained the services of Nuno Espirito Santo, returns to competitive action in less than 60 days, with pre-season fixtures against Stevenage and Southend United already announced. He will have been encouraged to learn the Board are committed to a rapid return to the top flight and efforts would be made, and funds provided, to help retain some of our better players.

In a post-David Sullivan world, life at West Ham United goes on and no doubt in due course the ownership issues will resolve themselves and attempts will be made to heal the rift with supporters. It does however remain to be seen whether too long a sacrifice has made a stone of hearts, and the thousands who have walked away may never return.

All indeed has changed, changed utterly during David Sullivan's time as Chairman of West Ham United. The club he leaves behind is unrecognisable from the one he bought. It remains to be seen whether a terrible beauty has been born, but for now, supporters are just grateful that a terrible era in the club's history is over.

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