West Ham United co-owner David Gold and vice-chairman Karren Brady appear to have silenced fans on their Twitter feeds.
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A growing number of West Ham fans have been campaigning for co-owners David Sullivan, Gold and Brady to leave.
The campaign GSBOUT (Gold, Sullivan, Brady Out) has often trended on social media.
On the pitch West Ham are looking as good as they have for a good five years.
Progress on the pitch but anti-board sentiment remains
Sunday’s amazing, record-breaking 3-3 comeback draw against bitter rivals Tottenham was the latest example of the progression David Moyes is making with the Hammers.
That does not appear to have changed attitudes towards the West Ham hierarchy, though.
Indeed one of the mottos of the GSBOUT movement is ‘Support the team, not the regime’.
Now it appears Gold and Brady have had enough of the abuse directed towards them on Twitter.
That’s after the pair elected to block responses on the social networking site.
Gold and Brady silence Hammers fans on Twitter
Instead replies to their posts – many of which are about West Ham – are limited to the people Brady and Gold follow or who are mentioned in their tweets.
Between them Brady and Gold have nearly 500,000 followers on Twitter. But they follow less than 600 people.
Of course some of the messages the pair receive online overstep the mark.
But there a good number which make legitimate points and ask pertinent questions regarding West Ham United.
Some would argue the whole point of being on Twitter is to interact with the club’s supporters, particularly for Gold.
Justified or another PR own goal?
And it comes not long after West Ham fans showed fierce loyalty by renewing season tickets in huge numbers despite the impact of the pandemic both on personal circumstances and their likelihood of actually being able to attend games.
Many who renewed did so knowing they were effectively providing the club with an interest free loan.
Yet weeks later one of the co-owners and the vice-chairman have elected to block out the club’s supporters.
Some would argue it is a justified step taken amid relentless abuse.
But it is surely yet another PR own goal at a time when things are really starting to come together on the pitch.
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