West Ham's players should tell Sullivan and Gold where they can stick their pay cuts

By Darren Lewis

Published 14:54 09/02/10

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Personally, I’m getting a bit fed up of David Gold and David Sullivan using the media to justify booting people out of jobs at West Ham.

In their latest round of the interviews they now seem to be giving every day, they – rather hyperbolically – insist it will be ‘Armageddon’ at Upton Park if  the Hammers are relegated.

And, as such, their cost-cutting exercise continues apace with the players and staff being asked to take a pay cut at the end of the season.

Two things, however, spring to mind. Actually, make that three...

Firstly, are Gold and Sullivan going to take a pay cut themselves?

Second, aren’t we talking about the same Gold and Sullivan who have given
32-year-old Benni McCarthy a two and a half year contract on £50,000-a-week? Surely the South African will not be able to justify such exorbitant wages when he is 35.

And thirdly, let’s do away with all this guff about Gold and Sullivan buying West Ham because they love the club. They have gone in there because they want to make money.

Remember, they bought Birmingham for £1 and sold it for £82million.

And let’s not forget, far from walking out on St Andrews, Gold actually wanted to stay on as chairman at Birmingham. He was desperate to.

So much so that he has gone on record as declaring how upset he was at not being retained by Carson Yeung following the Hong Kong businessman’s takeover in November.

Yeung was probably upset at having to give ex-MD Karren Brady, now in the
hot-seat at West Ham, a massive pay-off.

He was probably a little bit cheesed off at inheriting a raft of bills left behind by the previous owners.

And now, very much on the rebound, Gold and Sullivan clearly see ways of making another tidy sum from Upton Park.

That will obviously come in the long, rather than the short term. But I can’t believe the brass neck of two men who want the players to help them to reach that point far more quickly.

Which is why – and it might not seem charitable to say it, but - if I were a player at West Ham I’d be telling them where they can stick their request for me to take a pay cut.

Gold and Sullivan bought the club on the cheap without putting any money into paying the massive debt.

They went into the situation with their eyes wide open. They did their due diligence. They saw the contracts and they saw that, as a big club, West Ham paid big wages in some cases.

They’ve been able to turf out some of the staff – good people such as Olivia Collins who worked in the press room on matchdays – without so much as a
by-your-leave.

But the players have far more power. And they should bring Gold and Sullivan down to earth by forcing them to realise that, at big clubs, you spend money.

Yes, there probably is excess in some areas and yes, like any business, there probably are places where they could shave off a few quid.

But, speaking only this morning in a bid to justify trying to slash even Gianfranco Zola’s wages, Sullivan claimed all managers in the Premier League are overpaid.

Meaning he would probably go into Chelsea and ask whether Carlo Ancelotti – boss of the League leaders – is actually worth the money Roman Abramovich is paying him.

Or whether Arsene Wenger is really earning the money he is picking up at Arsenal.

Don’t get me wrong, better the two Davids come in with a record we know all about rather than faceless, so-called businessmen doing what has been done to Portsmouth and Notts County.

But it looks very much like we are now seeing the true colours of West Ham’s new wheeler-dealers.

The players should stand up to them. And if, as Sullivan has threatened, they are asked to leave if they refuse to take a wage cut, then they’d probably be better off at clubs that really do value their worth.