Karren Brady may be part of the past at West Ham United these days, but the former vice-chair will not escape blame should Nuno Espirito Santo fail to keep the club in the Premier League.
The Hammers host Arsenal at the London Stadium on Sunday knowing that a defeat – coupled with a Tottenham Hotspur victory at home to Leeds around 24 hours later – would make relegation feel pretty inevitable with two matchdays remaining.
West Ham confirmed the departure of Baroness Karren Brady following last month’s 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace.
Though Brady played a key role in the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo – potentially an inspired move if the ‘Great Escape’ becomes reality – David Sullivan’s long-time associate was a highly unpopular presence at the London Stadium.
Sixteen contentious years…
Tell us Brady's most controversial moment…
Of course, the London Stadium in itself has long since been a stick the fans have used to beat the board.
The Hammers recorded losses of over £100 million recently, too. Relegation, then, would be ‘pretty seismic’ for West Ham United’s future, stability and financial health. Those are the words of Charlie Methven, an experienced football director who saw first hand the disastrous effects of bad ownership with Charlton Athletic and former crisis club Sunderland.
Karren Brady criticised as West Ham United fight for their future
Charlie Stebbings, the host of the Business of Sport podcast speaking opposite Methven this week, highlights a claim Brady made back in 2010 – shortly after Davids Sullivan and Gold completed their takeover of Upton Park – a prime example of the broken promises which have littered the last 15 years.
“There’s a huge amount to admire about her,” Stebbings begins. “She’s done an amazing job in in many ways, particularly at Birmingham. West Ham fans will have their own views but there’s still been an increase, a 300 per cent increase in revenues at the club since she’s been there.
“They have moved into a stadium and they won a European trophy.
“But in 2010, she wrote in her newspaper column; ‘I’ll make a single pledge. While we’re on the board, we will hang in the Tower of London before your club again goes through the financial turmoil which so nearly brought it down.’
“She oversaw the stadium deal which looks increasingly short-sighted. She made a solemn promise about financial stability that spectacularly failed and leaves the club potentially heading into the Championship with £204 million in short-term debt and the squad being stripped for parts.
“That was a very bold statement. But when you highlight it like that, it’s been a failure.”
Sunderland and Leicester City dropped all the way to League One
As unpopular as the London Stadium already is, Methven feels that relegation would bring about an altogether different – and far more serious – problem.
“The one thing that cannot be questioned is that relegation to the Championship would be pretty seismic for West Ham,” says Methven. “The extent to which the TV revenues form a very large percentage of their overall revenues, almost 50 per cent.
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Sunderland and Leicester went from the Prem to League One in 12 months…
“And their matchday revenues which I think are predicated on the fact that they are playing in the Premier League? Will they fill that 60,000-seater stadium at quite a high rental price against much smaller clubs?”
Methven was appointed as Executive Director at Sunderland shortly after the Black Cats had suffered a second successive relegation in 2018; from the Premier League to League One in 12 brutal months.
And Stebbings can envisage a situation in which West Ham suffer the same fate as Sunderland, Wolves, Luton and most recently Leicester City.
“For West Ham, you think immediately, from year one, they’ve got some real challenges,” he concludes. “There’s a real danger it can unravel in a Sunderland or Leicester type of way if they don’t get a very, very quick grasp on some of these broader issues.”
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