Roughly an hour before West Ham began their new campaign, a small guessing game broke out among reporters inside the London Stadium.
David Sullivan, the deeply unpopular former co-chairman, was expected to attend despite being urged to stay away. The question was not whether the home crowd would make their feelings known, but when. Would the first chant come after 30 seconds? Five minutes? Or the moment Portsmouth found the net?
This is a West Ham fanbase that has spent years railing against the way their club has been run. There have been boycotts, protest banners, black balloons and repeated warnings about the direction of travel. Now, despite it all, they head to Burnley on Sunday to open their first Championship season in 14 years. Sullivan has resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies, yet his presence still lingered heavily over the occasion.
In the end, supporters seemed more irritated by a first-half hydration break accompanied by dance music than by the man in the directors’ area. More than anything, there was a sense they were determined not to let an unwelcome figure spoil what they hope can be the start of something different.
Sullivan may still have been in the building, and for the time being he remains the club’s largest individual shareholder, but he is no longer the person gripping the wheel. Nor is he the one signing off the major decisions.
West Ham have remarkably held on to Jarrod Bowen, who chose to commit his future to the club despite relegation to the Championship
David Sullivan (left), the unpopular former co-chairman, was present for the opening game of the season despite advice to stay away
He can observe from the stands, as he did last Saturday, and tell those nearby that West Ham need more pace, another striker and a creative midfielder. But he no longer has the authority to act decisively on those views, even if his son is still trying to arrange trials for young players. Karren Brady has gone too. Last season, fans held up red cards carrying the slogan “No more BS” — a clear reference to Brady and Sullivan. As West Ham step into the new season, that particular demand has finally been met.
And they still, incredibly, have Jarrod Bowen. Over the past three Premier League seasons, only Erling Haaland, Mo Salah, Ollie Watkins, Cole Palmer and Bruno Fernandes scored more goals than Bowen. Now, he’s playing in the Championship. Good luck, everyone.
New signing Manor Solomon, signed for £10million from Tottenham, said Bowen’s decision to stay helped convince him to make the move to east London.
‘I thought, like everyone else, that Jarrod would leave this summer and go to the Premier League, even to one of the top teams, but he decided to stay,’ said Solomon. ‘It was one of the key reasons why I decided to sign for West Ham.’
Club insiders talk of a fresh start and, at long last, finding a sense of normality. Not many football clubs are all that normal deep down but few have been less able to claim it in recent years than West Ham. Nils Koppen, the new head of recruitment, has not been at the club long but is already trying to put data-led systems in place to ensure smooth running of the transfer operation.
It’s one that’s bagged Brighton full back Joel Veltman on a free transfer, Solomon from Tottenham, and is on the verge of signing £22million Celtic midfielder Arne Engels.
‘Patient is a good word but it is, more than anything, about trying to make it right,’ explained boss Nuno Espirito Santo. ‘All the deals we want to make, the player has to come with a purpose, with a clear mindset of what we expect. We don’t have too much time but the priority is to make it right.’
It’s not always been that way.
New signing Manor Solomon, who joined for £10million from Tottenham, said Bowen’s decision to stay helped convince him to make the move to east London
Club insiders talk of a fresh start and finding a sense of normality. Not many football clubs are all that normal deep down but few have been less able to claim it recently than West Ham
‘Anyone who can put those processes in place will revolutionise West Ham,’ one insider told Daily Mail Sport.
This is a club that’s been so remarkably short of them. Koppen is the fourth recruitment boss in just 18 months after Tim Steidten, Kyle Macaulay and Max Hahn, so is it any wonder that the Hammers are still having to right the many, many wrongs of previous transfer windows.
Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville have been sold for the best part of £150million but there’s other deadwood that needs shifting. Nuno wants rid of Niclas Fullkrug and Jean-Clair Todibo. Brentford have enquired about full back El Hadji Malick Diouf, who only signed last summer for £20million, while Aston Villa have held talks over Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Few signings encapsulate West Ham’s ridiculous running over recent years like that of Todibo, originally loaned in from Nice by Steidten with an obligation to buy should they stay up. By the time that came around, Steidten was gone and so was manager Julen Lopetegui.
Todibo clashed with his replacement Graham Potter, was dropped for bad timekeeping, then refused to play in West Ham’s survival showdown against Leeds on the final day of last season under Nuno, having told him he would not play for him again. The Frenchman did not attend West Ham’s media day for this season so has a generic close-up picture of his face on the official website unlike the rest of the squad, who all posed in the new home kit. Wan-Bissaka and Fullkrug also missed it.
West Ham remain in talks with Arsenal over a move for winger Reiss Nelson and want Chelsea centre back Axel Disasi, who impressed hugely on loan last season. The Hammers are after Ireland striker Troy Parrott and are also keeping an eye on former Leicester front man Jamie Vardy as a potential back-up. How fun might that be? Vardy is nearly 40 but that didn’t stop Teddy Sheringham from firing West Ham to promotion all those years ago.
The ongoing, messy and complex boardroom struggles rumble on, too, with Czech billionaire and West Ham stakeholder Daniel Kretinsky wrestling it out with former Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley over the shares of David Gold’s family. Staveley has an eye on Sullivan’s, too.
Few signings encapsulate West Ham’s ridiculous running over recent years like that of Jean-Clair Todibo
Mohamadou Kante has the physicality that just might suit the rough and tumble of the Championship
Some behind the scenes are excited by the prospect of Staveley’s involvement, with one source describing her as ‘proper switched on’, yet it was Kretinsky whose pitch persuaded Bowen to stay and lead the promotion challenge.
West Ham might just have a few budding youngsters to help him, too. It had become a bit of a running gag that West Ham called themselves the ‘Academy of Football’ yet failed to hand a single full Premier League debut to a graduate of their youth system in five years from February 2020.
There won’t be one this season for obvious reasons, and one of their most recent additions to the ‘Wall of Graduates’ at their Chadwell Heath base Freddie Potts, son of club legend Steve, has just joined Club Bruges on a permanent deal. Hammers never like to see one of their own depart, especially one with that much claret and blue running through his veins.
The emergence of Lewis Orford and Mohamadou Kante, though, provides two reasons why the club felt it was worth banking the £10million for Potts.
Orford impressed Nuno during pre-season and has been referred to behind the scenes as having a touch of Michael Carrick about him. He has been at the club since he was five. His parents, grandfather and girlfriend sat in the stands to watch him control the midfield against Portsmouth. Kante has the physicality that just might suit the rough and tumble of the Championship.
And so, despite all the upheaval and uncertainty, there was a genuine feeling around the London Stadium last Saturday that this is a club ready to embrace their fresh start.
