Two careless owners: Sullivan and Gold are blind to their own failings and agents of their own misfortune
Another day, another eye-catching soliloquy from David Sullivan.
And it is hard not to come to the conclusion that the West Ham co-owner is becoming the Kerry Katona of football.
He can't live with the nasty old media. Yet he can't live without it.
Like Katona, Sullivan his co-owner David Gold lurch from crisis to crisis.
Like Katona, Sullivan uses the media when its suits him yet complains when he does not get the press he feels he deserves.
And, like Katona, it is always someone else's fault.
Now Sullivan tells us he should never have appointed Avram Grant as West Ham manager in the first place.
Under fire for the club's crass handling of the Israeli's sacking - less than an hour after Sunday's Wigan defeat in the bowels of the JJB - Sullivan is, yet again, directing the blame elsewhere.
And while he is in the papers doing that, his joint-owner Gold is on the TV telling us about his "emotional investment" in the club.
All about how he is back at his roots and how, if you cut him, he bleeds claret and blue.
It is a well-worn routine which is becoming increasingly predictable.
Days after the club's dismal home defeat to Aston Villa, Sullivan was in the papers detailing the financial Armageddon the club is facing in yet another example of the misdirection for which they are famed.
They worked it to perfection at Birmingham, where they managed to put themselves across as patient owners even though they ended up taking the Midlands club into the third tier in their first season there.
But at the more high-profile Hammers the routine is not having quite the same success.
At West Ham there is far more of an examination of their failing approach to running a Premier League club.
At West Ham there are far more people ready to pull the owners up on their bid to convince us that they are the only ones whose finances will be put to the test with relegation ahead of their proposed move to the Olympic Stadium.
What about Newham Council, who will fund the move to the tune of £40million? What about the Newham taxpayers who have done nothing to deserve the hike in their council taxes that will enable Gold and Sullivan to be painted as the heroes of the club for keeping the venue out of the clutches of Tottenham?
Spurs would have put their own money into the move. They always did have far more of a chance of filling the stadium than the Hammers, who struggled to fill Upton Park for the visits of Manchester United this season and slashed prices to encourage more fans in.
Sullivan shifts the blame for expensive flop Benni McCarthy onto Gianfranco Zola. But what about Mido, described as the 'deal of the century' by Gold but who ended up without a goal in nine games?
Indeed, the Egyptian forward was last seen eating pie and chips on the Marylebone High Road.
What about Ilan? Possibly the worst Brazilian ever to pull on a football boots and who ended up being released after just four months.
And what about Pablo Barrera? Four million of your English pounds wasted on the World Cup winger who turned about to be as useful as mammary glands on a canary.
Asked if he feels the fans are right to criticise him, Sullivan said: "Obviously I don't. But I'm biased. All I can say is that we all work very hard for the club.
"It's a pretty thankless task and whatever we do, we get criticised."
Look, nobody doubts that Sullivan works hard for West Ham. But just be honest. Just say you are in it to make money.
Just be open about the fact that you are businessmen and, as such are in it because you can see an opportunity.
Or better still, say nothing.
Instead, the West Ham owners just do not seem to get it.
Look up and down the Premier League and see how many other chairmen/owners you can find who conduct manager and player appraisals in the media.
It's a fair bet you will not find too many outside Upton Park.
Sullivan just does not get the fact that bringing in the playing or managerial staff means nothing unless you keep your trap shut, your mitts off and allow them to do the job they are paid to do.
Which is why there is no mention of the runners and riders to succeed Grant in this piece. Because it makes no difference WHO he gets in.
As has been shown at Chelsea, you could sign up the very best but if you get interference from above it is a recipe for disaster.
Sullivan moans about not being able to do anything right but the reason he is getting it in the neck is because he keeps placing himself in a position to be shot at.
No amount of violin-inducing "I've risked everything to save this football club" will take away from the fact that both he and Gold drove decisive nails into the Hammers' Premier League coffin by criticising the players and the manager on the Premier League run-in.
All the rhetoric about "I confidently predict that this time next year, with the help of our wonderful supporters, we'll be back in the Premier League" is all very well.
But since the play-offs were introduced 22 of the 30 teams relegated from the top division have failed to return.
You fear West Ham have not quite hit rock bottom just yet.
Column
Crass of the Day: Why Gary Lineker should be ashamed of his xenophobic mocking of Arsene Wenger
Columnists 11:07 03/05/12Shame on Gary Lineker. His mockery, stupid French accent and derision of Arsene Wenger at the end of... Read More+
Column
Stop rewriting history: Hodgson may have got it, but Redknapp is still the better man for the job
Darren Lewis 10:45 03/05/12The revisionism surrounding Harry Redknapp this week has been an education to behold. Suddenly his f... Read More+
Column
Big Match Verdict on Chelsea 0-2 Newcastle: Torres has been transformed in a week
John Cross 22:27 02/05/12Fernando Torres has been transformed in little over a week. In fact, the Spaniard was the odd man ou... Read More+
Column
Reflecting, reading and not being Redknapp: Hodgson is under fire over the three Rs
Oliver Holt 22:30 01/05/12In the circumstances, Roy Hodgson did pretty well when he was introduced to the media as the new Eng... Read More+
