"West Ham should be in the Championship"
Wigan nutter Dave Whelen is at it again, telling the Daily Express that "West Ham should be in the Championship." Coming from the chairman of a team with a pitch that would embarrass a Conference side that is a bit rich.
After West Ham's game at Wigan I argued that they should be deducted points for the state of their pitch. Since then the rugby league season has begun and their pitch has become even worse. There are standards that stadiums must reach and the same should go for pitches. Why should opposition teams be disadvantaged just so that Whelen can line his grubby pockets by having his rugby team playing on the same pitch as his so called football team?
His latest comments come as The Express tries desperately to create trouble for West Ham. Yesterday they printed a story saying that MSI paid insurance on Carlos Tevez. They claim that this proves West Ham broke promises to the league after they were fined £5 million last season. The problem for The Express is that they can't quite explain to anyone how this proves anything.
The Express have been told quite categorically by the Premier League that they have “seen no evidence” that West Ham broke any rules. This has annoyed The Express so much that today they have printed a story claiming that "Richard Scudamore is under pressure from club bosses" following their non-story.
To back up this claim the paper could only get the muggy runts Dave Whelen and Fulham director Stuart Benson to support their argument. Fulham are lying second from bottom in the Premier League and last year tried to exert third party influence over West Ham by asking them not to play Boa Morte against them. Since West Ham refused to break Premier League rules for Fulham they have been consistently trying to stitch the Irons up. Now they face certain relegation unless they can try and get points deducted from another club.
For a second year running we see teams facing relegation trying to escape their plight not on the pitch but by trying to stitch up another team. Sadly with the amount of money that clubs stand to lose by being relegated we will probably see more and more of these desperate attempts to stay up at any cost.
posted by Keir Clarke @ 9:47 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
i agree with you that all this is beyond the pale, and that it s not a coincidence that it sourced from clubs in danger of being relegated
again, and from another ragsheet with nothing else newsworthy to print.
i think your point on the state of wigan s pitch is a great one. there is an argument to be made for them to be penalized in some fashion for a pitch that is not worthy of league two, no less the
Premiership. it s clear that this is part of whelan s survival strategy a grubby pitch to encourage home draws to survive yet another season and collect Sjy revenues.
Whelan ,Joorabchian, McCabe, Al Fayed : none of them have any evidence ,which is why they have failed in the courts every time.
Al Fayed seems to enjoy failing in legal matters .
it would be nice at some stage to see west ham sue either the ragsheets responsibile for printing falsehoods and distortions of fact, and/or suing some of the said individuals feeding these stories. That may be the only way to shut these vermin up.
Kenny says
I agree to some extent but we canot sue them for being idiots.
...if anyone was stupid enough to buy the express then i could see the need. As it is best leave em to it!!
i do wonder if there is a reasonable legal case on grounds of libel,reputational damage,even harassment for that matter. altho to a degree it s in the past,it s not a good piece of baggage to keep carrying when trying to attract more good players to the club. i can understand the club hoping that it would just fade away over time, and from that point of view ,not wanting to go to the expense and effort of a libel suit but you wonder if there is a limit to how much of this the west ham board is prepared to put up with before taking some kind of action to counter it. It is nearly a year on, and some of what is printed and said still looks either an outright fabrication ,if not gross distortion of what happened.
altho i d prefer to see us take action, i can see where you are coming from in terms of allowing the thing to gradually die.
Kenny says
I am actually a solicitor...not that menas that i know anything more about the common sense view than anyone else, and the problem i firstly see is that Whelan is giving an opinion. Is is not therefore saying anything which is false. YOu could argue that some of what is said is fact and wrong and has lead to loss, but i suspect that you may be on dodgy ground. To take action and loose, on a technical point is worse that not taking action and turning the other cheek.
I know it is frustrating but if action were taken it would also just give the Express et al more column inches to fill with dross, and keeping it in the public eye.
I think the board are best speding their time and doshin more positive ways than looking over their shoulder??
Don't know?!?!?
well stated, especially the point on the risk of the high cost in the event that we lost . good point on the possible downside that even if we won, we d still be exposed to more rubbish coverage from these ragsheets. given the exposure of the owner to problems in credit/mortgage markets , he may be very restricted in what he can spend right now, and agree that the top priority is spending on players.
irritating as it is, from a practical point of view ,this is perhaps one we simply have to take on the chin.
there is also something to be said for revenge being best served cold. spend the money on good players , let our efforts on the pitch do the talking ,and watch our club improve over time, whilst the clubs creating the trouble continue their downward spiral
cheers
yep..if only our revenge was being borne ot on the pitch.
Backburn turning point!!!
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