EPL 2011 : How the Hammers Can Bounce Back

David Sullivan and David Gold have a lot of rebuilding to do before West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium

It seems like only a yesterday that David’s Gold and Sullivan and Karen Brady arrived at Upton Park with a plan, a vision for the future to get the Hammers back on course after the Icelandic disaster.

Fast forward a year and notwithstanding the Olympic Stadium, which they have now secured (for now), everything else has gone mammary skywards. Avram Grant was appointed as manager, hardly a man to fill a fan base with confidence, and relegation has been secured with one game to spare.

Grant’s recruitment may not have been inspired, but it was hardly surprising. He is a friend of super-agent Barry Silkman, who in turn is a pal and confidante of David Sullivan. “Silky” as he’s known, set the deal up and doubtless took a healthy cut for his efforts in the process.

Silkman is also the man responsible for some of the more questionable transfers that West Ham’s new board have presided over; the loan deals for Robbie Keane and Wayne Bridge, whose salaries cost a total of £160,000 a week, as well as deals for Benni McCarthy, Mido and Ilan, to mention but a few. The latter 3 scored no goals at all for the Hammers, and in McCarthy’s case cost the club £6.7mm having played only 14 times for them.

Whether Silkman and Sullivan’s friendship is still as strong now as it was then is questionable, but one thing is pretty clear: allowing an agent to broker deals for players that he himself recommends and has a vested interest in, without having someone at the club to approve those recommendations is naive and misguided in the extreme. How can a manager build a team when he’s being given players he had no interest in signing in the first place?

But Sullivan and his dodgy agent friend can’t take all the flak surely? David Gold has never been backward in coming forward when it comes to talking to the press this season, and something he said in the aftermath to Grant’s dismissal just minutes after West Ham’s 3-2 defeat away to Wigan on Sunday, having lead 2-0 at half time, makes for interesting reading.

“I honestly believed with the players we brought in in January we had done enough to pull clear of danger. I know that Scotty Parker shared that belief with me and we both had confidence that we would retain our Premiership status.” Am I right in assuming then that perhaps Parker was a confidante of the board when it came to transfer targets and assessing the strength in the squad? It begs the question, did the captain have more authority over proceedings at West Ham then the manager did? In which case, why on earth keep Grant?

It’s pretty widespread knowledge now that the spirit in the Hammers camp was close to rock bottom under the Israeli. There were fallings out on the training ground, confusion over tactics, and a lack of vision and authority from the manager. Before the 3-0 away defeat to Chelsea last month, a West Ham player asked Grant how they should deal with Essien and Lampard. Press, or sit back? Grant replied that they should adapt as they saw fit during the match. Well that’s clear then.

Sullivan has said since Grant’s sacking that he was a “Lovely guy, but the results speak for themselves”. But Gold and Sullivan are shrewd business men. Surely they have encountered lovely but useless guys in business before and dealt with them accordingly? It seems strange that they’ve only just realised he was so bad that he had to go now? They must have known in January when they flirted with Martin o’Neill, so why not wield the axe then? If they knew he was unfit to lead back then why risk the unthinkable, namely the chance of Grant leading them to almost certain relegation?

But what about the players? Sure the manager was poor and the transfer policy was erratic to say the least, but the players they had should have been able to do more than they managed, surely? Only Parker offered anything close to his potential over the course of the season, and he will surely now leave as the Hammers look to reduce their overheads. Robert Green will also go, as no doubt will Upson and Cole, if they can find anyone who will actually take them. Wayne Bridge and Robbie Keane’s loans are up, and so will return to their clubs, and the likes of Piquionne, Hitzlsperger and Ba may be on their ways too.

There’s also the small matter of the Olympic Stadium to think about, with the keys set to be handed over in three season’s time. Karen Brady has said that the board has budgeted for the stadium as a Championship club as well as a Premier League one, but still it’s going to be pretty embarrassing if West Ham are only getting 18,000 fans a game through the turnstiles in their first season there in 2013.

A return to the Premier League in time for the move is imperative, but it won’t be easy. Chris Hughton managed an instant return to the Premier League last season with Newcastle, and is also one of the front-runners for the Hammers managerial vacancy now. The West Ham board could do a lot worse that consider his application carefully. He did a marvellous job at Newcastle and the side he brought up was organised, competitive and had players that could win games, almost everything the current West Ham side lacks.

West Ham have some good young players in their ranks already, like Tomkins, Collison and Sears. With financial constraints as they are at Upton Park, and the lure of Premier League football now gone, these youngsters will be given the chance to play and establish themselves as the backbone to the new West Ham first team. They have the chance to lead their side back into the Premier League and into their new home too. There’s an exciting future ahead, if the board gets it right this summer.

To do that, they need to make the right appointments, and rely less on agents. With a coach like Hughton at the helm, whose given time and the resources he needs to build a side to suit his style of play, perhaps West Ham can bounce back to the Premier League in time for the Olympic Stadium move in 2013.