West Ham United supporting reporter Ian ‘the Moose’ Abrahams has a reputation as something of a board crony among his fellow fans.
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The talkSPORT presenter has been accused of cosying up to West Ham owners David Sullivan, David Gold and their vice-chairman Karren Brady during their tempestuous tenure.
As a reporter, Abrahams is doing his job to get stories.
But – in the eyes of some – he is betraying a section of West Ham fans with whom GSB – as they are now often acronymed – are hugely unpopular.
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When deadline day passed without West Ham signing a striker many supporters pointed the finger of blame at Sullivan and Gold.
It is easy to see why some supporters are disgruntled.
Having made their best start to a season for 35 years, West Ham fans wanted to see the club kick on and show some ambition.
They say never look a gift horse in the mouth. And many feel this wide open season is that very gift horse for the Hammers.
David Moyes must now navigate the remaining 17 games with injury prone Michail Antonio as his only senior forward.
Ironically some of the fans livid with the club for failing to replace Sebastien Haller are the same ones calling for young starlet Mipo Odubeko to be given his big chance.
Board supporting reporter turns on owners with rant
If the Moose was a board supporter and defender in the past, he performed a major U-turn in the wake of West Ham’s failure to sign a new striker.
Abrahams turned on the owners as he went on a passionate rant on talkSPORT.
His words will no doubt resonate with many West Ham fans.
But his views got short shrift from Moyes who subsequently set Abrahams straight. He told the reporter that he will not be rushed or pushed into signing players he does not want ‘just to appease people’.
“I’m certainly not going to throw David Moyes under the bus here but you’ve had a better first half of the season than anyone could ever have imagined, anyone could ever have dreamed of,” Abrahams said on talkSPORT.
“You’ve only got one striker because you’ve sold the other one. And he’s not really an out-and-out striker. You know he (Antonio) is not an Ally McCoist, he’s not an Alan Shearer, he’s not an Ian Wright or an Andy Cole. With respect to Michail Antonio he’s a wide man that’s been converted into a striker. A good one, but he’s not an out-and-out striker. And the one thing sadly he is, is he’s injury prone. And every season history will tell you that.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t get injured. But there’s more chance of him getting injured between now and the end of the season than not.
“The back-up now is apparently Andriy Yarmolenko. I’ve always been a fan of Yarmolenko (but) I’ve never seen him as an out-and-out number nine! Nor Jarrod Bowen… he can’t play through the middle, not really.
“So you’ve got a whole month to make sure you get another striker in. There are strikers out there.
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“And for West Ham not to land one single striker, well you know the first half of the season has been brilliant – I’ve still got a picture on the wall of West Ham in the top four and of West Ham in the top six.
“But now West Ham are a Michail Antonio injury away from the whole season just becoming a pffffffh you know 12th or 13th (kind of season).”
Moose put his concerns to Moyes when the Scot sat down for his pre-Aston Villa press conference.
And he got short shrift from Moyes. The West Ham boss hit back by saying the money was there for a striker but he didn’t want to spend it for the sake of it (talkSPORT).
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