This joke isn't funny anymore: Hammers laughing stock again

So it’s Monday evening and despite the widespread rumours of Saturday morning, Avram Grant remains West Ham manager and Martin O’Neil continues to do whatever it is out-of-work football coaches do with their lives. And so far, all West Ham have announced is that they won’t be announcing anything.

Reports today suggest that O’Neil may walk away from the job given the embarrassing nature in which his potential appointment was leaked whilst the man he was set to replace, Avram Grant, was still in the job and preparing his team for an eventual 3-0 home defeat to Arsenal. No-one has come out of this sorry mess with any dignity, and the whole situation has descended into an utter face. Once again, West Ham are a laughing stock, and the football world is splitting its sides.

It’s hard to decide what is the most depressing element to West Ham’s season: the team languishes in 20th place having won only four league games; the club continues to engage in an ugly public row about its aim to move to the Olympic Stadium; and now attempts to replace Grant with one of the most respected managers of the last 20 years could be doomed, following an appalling mismanagement of the situation.

Davids Gold and Sullivan 

Owners David Gold and David Sullivan, along with vice-chairman Karren Brady, are either guilty of fuelling the rumours of O’Neil’s arrival themselves, or of failing to clarify the situation and allowing the story to grow legs. Either way it is incompetent, and shows a distinct lack of class.

To be honest, we shouldn’t be surprised that West Ham have once again managed to make a cotton rag out of a yard of silk. Last year, administrators were in talks to sell the club to a consortium whose leading man promptly died; previously the club was bought by an Icelandic billionaire, only for him to go bankrupt and almost take the British economy down with him; and before then, the club was run by individuals more concerned with making tidy profits from selling some of the best young talent in the country, than building the team around them and aspiring to glory.

Incompetence is not limited to the corporate structure either. The team has spent much of its existence veering wildly from the sublime to the ridiculous, and then back again. They’ve managed to be relegated from the top flight on more than one occasion with a squad comprising numerous internationals, and look like they could repeat the trick this year too.

In a way it adds to the club’s charm and is why it has one of the most loyal supporter bases in the country, despite a relative lack of historical success. Fans know anything can happen at West Ham; they just don’t know what, when and to whom. Mavericks like McAvennie, Dicks and Di Canio found a home at Upton  Park for that reason: their irrational behaviour on and off the pitch could be forgiven by the many moments of magic that they also delivered  to their adoring fans.

So yes, the club is a joke and to be honest, has spent much of its history being a joke. But if I may quote Mr Stephen Morrissey, this joke isn’t funny anymore.

Would it be too much to ask to have owners who as well as running the club prudently, also acted with dignity and respected their employees? Would it be too much to ask for the club to conduct its business in the confines of its offices and boardroom, as opposed to the back pages of the tabloids? And would it be too much to ask for the club to put success on the pitch at its heart, and for everyone involved to focus their efforts on building a team that entertains its fans? After events this weekend, it would appear so.

The club now has a huge mess to clear up, and it must act quickly if West Ham are to have any hope of avoiding relegation. O’Neil could not be blamed for thinking twice about joining the club that has so far treated Grant so shabbily, and the owners will need to build a lot of bridges to convince him that a move to Upton Park is a good one.

For Grant, it looks like the game is up whatever Martin O‘Neil decides to do. With the club rock bottom of the Premier League and losing the momentum of its recent mini-revival, it’s a decision that can’t be argued with. It simply hasn’t worked out at West Ham for Avram Grant, who has struggled to bring either the fans or players on-side, and has been a dead man walking for some time now. But with all that said, he deserves more respect than he has been shown by the owners. He deserves to not be publicly undermined by his employers, and he deserves to know if he is to be removed from his post.

One can only hope that the owners have learnt their lesson, because top managers like O’Neil simply won’t stand for the way in which Grant has been disgracefully treated, and nor should he.