Avram Grant should have gone four months ago. That is the conventional wisdom and a fairly safe one at that. But the problem was no one was willing to take over for him. Grant reveals that there were six candidates including Martin O’Neill, Steve McLaren, and Sam Allardyce who were sought out in January but they would not do it because ” they knew the situation there.”
He’s now the second manager to go in the 17 months since David Gold and David Sullivan took over West Ham.
The fish stinks from the head down.
The meddling duo undermined then manager Gianfranco Zola right from the outset. Their underhandedness was thoroughly exposed by the Graham Dorrans controversy and putting up the players (except for Scott Parker) for sale without Zola’s knowledge. The Chelsea legend was shown the back door despite the Hammers surviving the drop. He left saddened by “adverse comments” from within the club.
It was the same situation with Steve Bruce a couple of years ago at Birmingham when Gold and Sullivan owned that club. Bruce was promised a new contract which was subsequently reneged on by the board. In the end, he departed for Wigan described unfeelingly by Sullivan thus, “We’ve got £3m and it’s the best business the club has ever done. “. Bruce spent eight years with the Blues, six of them as manager, but he was never shown respect from the owners.
Grant is the latest in the line of managers treated badly by the former porn merchants. Part of the problem is their grandiose, unrealistic expectations which now unfortunately includes the Olympic Stadium.