Everyone wants to kick West Ham
If you thought that West Ham’s downfall - initiated after the 31st August transfers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano under MSI ownership - was complete with the Premier League 5.5m fine, you were wrong.
Plenty of things are STILL to go wrong for West Ham - and there are indications that they will.
The most immediate concern is to beat Bolton and subsequently give them an outside chance of staying in the Premiership. Yes, West Ham are playing at home and yes, Bolton have a new manager but in all honestly at this level and this stage of the season, you’re not going to get a crap Bolton just because Big Sam left early. Bolton’s training went as scheduled and there is a large number of management staff that will ensure that Bolton are fully prepared and come out fighting.
Premiership survival could mean the difference between selling 2-3 players and selling a dozen players - and that is just the start of West Ham’s troubles.
If West Ham survive (or probably even if they don’t), relegation rivals are queuing up to sue them. Wigan’s chairman, Dave Whelan, jumped ahead of the line when he said:
“This is a very serious offence West Ham committed. They broke the law, told blatant lies and should have got a 10-point penalty.
If we can sue West Ham or the Premier League, I am sure that will happen.”
Whelan’s frustration could also be borne out of the fact that Tevez had a big role to play in the game against West Ham last weekend (where West Ham won 3-0 away).
It’s also worth asking how Liverpool are allowed to play Mascherano when there were such serious questions being raised about Tevez / Mascherano playing for West Ham? It would make sense to make the details of this investigation public - to avoid incessant speculation in the media and to clear the matter once and for all.
Personally I think the Premier League did not deduct points because the people who had conducted the deal had left and it would seem, to some at least, unfair to saddle the new owners with punishments meant for the sins of the former owners.
Speaking of former owners, Terry Brown and Paul Aldridge have already been reported to be threatening legal action. So far we’ve only heard from Magnusson and co about Tevez and Mascherano, and although I think that Brown and Aldridge are just protecting their public image instead of defending their virtuous behavior, there’s too much here that can’t be decided without knowing the full details of the August 31 transfer.
One thing’s for certain - stay up or go down, West Ham are in it, at the deep end, and won’t be out of it till next season, at the very least.
Update: Now Sheffield United want to sue West Ham as well. Fulham / Charlton may get involved as well.
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They broke the law and should get points deducted. It’s an outrage. Either way, I hope they go down and good riddance.
Everyone just calm down - If Wigan/Fulham/Charlton or us go down then its because they’re not good enough - that may be difficult to swallow but there you go. I personally think the controversy over the transfers and the subsequent speculation in the papers pretty much every day all season has had an adverse effct on us already - difficult to quantify in points but around 5-10 seems about right. And yet we’re still gonna stay up by the sounds of all the other clubs literally crapping themselves over this. Wouldn’t it be nice, for wigan fans, for Jewell and that other fella to just come out and say that they still back themselves to stay up anyway, you know show a bit of confidence in their players, instead of just whinging? Plus you’ve got the problem of the 4-5 chairmen of clubs around us meeting on the day before a crucial weekend in the season - what if results in the next two games seem to work precisely against us in the next two games? We can only really get to 38 with our last game being at man u - so wigan need 3 and fulham need 2. And they both play Boro…for a team who’s used to conspiracy theories this season I see one brewing there…
What have Boro got to be upset about anyway? When they got relegated they got points deducted for deliberately going against an FA directive to play their match, plus the points got taken off in January, leaving them enough time to know exactly what they’ve got to do.
As for Charlton - their manager actually picked both players for us, so its difficult to know what they can do about it…
Seems like sour grapes to me, magnusson is now the chairman and has done nothing wrong and yet it’s his administration being punished. Obviously the dodgy deal was done either deliberately or as a rush job on the last day of the season with the intention of making the sale of the club a far more attractive proposition. If you remember back to when it happened, everyone was amazed that west ham had signed 2 such world class players and the potential after such a good placing in the premiership last year was for great things. sadly for west ham it all backfired and had the opposite effect for most of the season. curbishly then came in and gradually applied some overdue discipline, albeit too late for safety.
so indeed sour grapes by the managers down there. they were all obviously banking on a points deduction so leaving them with one less team to have to finish above. that assumption has caught them out and that alone.
i don’t see how anyone can sue west ham themselves either. west ham eventually pleaded guilty and by doing so agreed to any punishement set by the FA. it would be like getting away to drink driving with a fine in a magistrates court only to have the policeman who nicked you then sue you and the court because he wanted a prison sentence and didn’t get his own way.
we’ll see if west ham get relegated whether the clubs around them still pursue any legal cases. my money is on the sour grapes to be dropped in that case.
This is the same Mr D Whelan who broke the Salary Cap with his Super League RL Team Wigan Warriors? who got caught and had action taken against his company JJB Sports for price fixing, who did not want to pay policing fees at the JJB, while other clubs did pay - I feel the situation now is getting to the point he is bringing the Good Name of the Premier League into dis-repute.
If Court Action is taken against West Ham which I can’t see a case, then the position of Liverpool must be called into question, and then what about clubs in the Champions League could they take action.
If Mr D Whelan and Mr P Jewel had played to the whistle and concentrated on the field with the Team last Saturday, instead of the constant moaning and legal threats, they may not have been Drubbed 3-0
No precedent has been set in what has happened with the signing of Tevez/Mascherano. They were registered and accepted by the Premier League and everybody knew there was third party ownership with MSI. However there are more players in the PL with similar contracts, punishment here and bringing it to light will open a pandora’s box.
Whelan and co. may think they have a case against West Ham and/or the Premier League but in my opinion it is doomed to fail. The dodgy dealings were done by previous owners who have sold the club to a new administration who have done nothing wrong and may even have had certain information disclosed to them. In no way at all has there been third party influence on the club either. Magnusson can also argue that a similar case in the past when Tottenham was newly owned by Alan Sugar, irregularities in players and contracts were waived because it was done by previous owners.
There are many legal technicalities but I was not expecting West Ham to be docked points as they would have taken it to the High Court and argued their case. This would have resulted in turmoil for fixture planning and the whole of PL games for 07/08 would have been disrupted.
In the end it is just sour grapes. Everybody expected West Ham to be relegated a month or so ago and now the whole picture has changed. I expect West Ham to stay up (beat bolton and Man Utd) and hopefully Charlton can Fulham can do the same to send Sheffield Utd and Wigan both down.