Sullivan: We're paying Carroll's wages out of our own pockets... We want the best team because we are West Ham fans

Posted Friday, September 21, 2012 by Dailymail

Sullivan: We're paying Carroll's wages out of our own pockets... We want the best team because we are West Ham fans
Legacy: Sullivan and co-owner David Gold (left) stand in front of the Olympic Stadium

You do wonder why, having sold Birmingham City, he and Gold did not just buy themselves a box at Upton Park. ‘It’s not the same though,’ he says. ‘You want to influence things. You want to make things happen. I think the club might have gone bust had we not stepped in. It is our intention, over the next couple of years, to pay off the debt and then be owed the money by the club. But we will be friendly bankers. The club won’t have to pay any interest if they don’t want to. If and when the club have some money they might pay a bit off.

‘It means my kids will inherit less money because of West Ham and it will be the same for David Gold’s kids. But we’ve got very supportive families who also love the club. We’re all committed.

‘Now, if the king of Saudi Arabia wants to buy West Ham we would happily step aside for the good of the club.
But we wouldn’t step aside for a mystery foreign buyer whose financial resources we have no knowledge of.’

He has mixed feelings about certain foreign owners, his views influenced by the erosion of what he considers a boardroom tradition at matches. ‘There are good examples of foreign ownership,’ he says. ‘Man City and
Chelsea are terrific. But if things go bad for a foreign owner it’s easy to walk away.

‘Roman Abramovich and Sheik Mansour are in it for the fun. It’s a hobby. Randy Lerner is here to make money.
The Americans at Man United and Liverpool are here to make money. The Sunderland guy has a strategy to make money. But when it comes to the boardroom you rarely meet them. It’s sad. In the old days it was lovely.

There would be banter but you’d also exchange ideas, share thoughts. But the new brigade, you don’t see.

‘It actually started with Sir John Hall at Newcastle. He’d pop his head around the door, say hello and then disappear. I thought it was rude. The worst is Aston Villa, because they put the visiting directors in a room with the corporate home fans. We got loads of abuse because we were the former owners of Birmingham. We were treated appallingly. I nearly did it to them in retaliation but I wasn’t prepared to stoop to their level.

‘At West Ham we’ve got the best boardroom in the Premier League. We give the visiting directors the best table, right in the middle. It’s the friendliest. It’s lovely.’

He also likes to think it is now in safe hands.

« Previous 1 2 3 4 56Next »