The increasingly desperate situation unfolding at West Ham United is summed up by co-owner David Gold contradicting himself over Grady Diangana.
Jack Collison questions West Ham ambition amid impending Diangana sale
West Ham fans are furious with Gold and his fellow co-owner David Sullivan.
That’s because, according to the likes of Sky Sports, Claret & Hugh, ExWHUemployee West Ham have agreed a deal to sell the academy graduate to West Brom for £18million.
It seems to be the final straw for many West Ham fans when it comes to unpopular co-owners Sullivan and Gold.
West Ham fan fury over impending Diangana sale
Supporters cannot fathom why the club would sell Diangana.
It comes after West Ham’s own media team just last week posted a picture of Jarrod Bowen and Diangana saying ‘Can’t wait to see more of these two next season’.
More embarrassingly, though, it comes in the wake of Gold breaking his six-month Twitter silence by posting a picture of Diangana with fellow youngsters Ben Johnson and Conor Coventry in an apparent nod to West Ham’s new strategy of using the club’s young players in the first team.
— David Gold (@davidgold) August 21, 2020
Yet lest than two weeks later Gold and Sullivan look set to sanction the sale of Diangana.
Gold’s embarrassing Grady contradiction
Gold’s suggestion that West Ham will turn to the academy was a contradiction in itself.
Back in 2017, Gold infamously played down the chances of young players making it in the West Ham first team.
Not the rhetoric you expect from the owner of a club which prides itself on its academy roots.
Most football fans love seeing a homegrown talent graduate into a first team success.
But at West Ham it holds extra special meaning. And it has been a conveyor belt of young stars over the years from Bobby Moore to Declan Rice.
Gold looking to youth was a contradiction in itself
The co-owner was slammed by fans and pundits alike when he took to Twitter in 2017 to paint a bleak picture for academy hopefuls.
“I think we all have to except (sic) that it is extremely unlikely that a teenager will break into a PL team full of seasoned internationals,” Gold said.
“Playing teenagers doesn’t guarantee success. Hull came 5th (in the table of most young players) and got relegated. Chelsea came last and won the league. dg.”
I think we all have to except that it is extremely unlikely that a teenager will break into a PL team full of seasoned international. dg https://t.co/R0c1SimdVr
— David Gold (@davidgold) May 20, 2017
Playing teenagers doesn’t guarantee success. Hull came 5th and got relegated. Chelsea came last and won the league. dg https://t.co/oFxJOyH2FE
— David Gold (@davidgold) May 20, 2017
He changed his tune by posting the picture of Diangana, Coventry and Johnson in a nod to some kind of grand plan or philosophy to look to youth.
But 14 days later West Ham stand on the verge of selling off more of the crown jewels.
So much for David Moyes’s publicly stated plan to make West Ham a Red Bull lite by building around young, exciting talent hungry to prove themselves in the top flight.
Is it any wonder there is so much apathy among supporters.