GOLD INSISTS CLUB ARE STILL MOVING UPWARDS
DAVID GOLD has launched a passionate defence of how West Ham are being run – and insists the club remain on the way up.
Furious fans have staged protests, shouted abuse and even worn T-shirts calling for co-chairmen Gold and David Sullivan, inset right, and vice-chairwoman Karren Brady to leave.
The club are on the brink of disaster with the Hammers stuck in the relegation zone.
And the supporters can still remember being promised European football when they left Upton Park for the London Stadium in 2016.
But Gold claims the fans he speaks to are happy and also says he has not taken a penny out of the club in salary or expenses.
“We’ve now got a stadium which holds 60,000 from one which held 35,000,” said the 83-year-old.
“OK, understand there have we do been difficulties with the stadium. But you’ve only got to go back and look at what you had atWest Ham.
“When I was a boy as a fan, all I remember is a football club in the old Second Division.
“At least it’s in the Premier League now. OK, we’ve got a few problems now, but overall we’re moving upwards.
“I spoke to a cab driver yesterday and he was thrilled with the stadium. His kids love it, he was telling me the story about his day when he goes to a match.
“But is he on the television? Is he in the paper? No. All that’s in the paper is the guy that wants to kill me or burn my house down.”
Gold says they are still on track to use the stadium as a springboard to reach the next level. “You’d like to do it in five years, which we hoped would happen,” he added.
“But it’s not because we’ve taken all the money out and gone off to Barbados to
BRIGHTON manager Graham Potter faces one of his biggest games of the season against Watford tomorrow after a week which has put football into perspective.
Potter has lost both his parents this season. His dad Steve died last week just months after his mother passed away.
He insists he wants to carry on as normal, but sit in the sunshine. I’ve not received a penny in salary or expenses from West Ham in 10 years.
“I know of owners or chief executives that are earning £3million-a-year and more.”
Gold, though, refused to deny that he and Sullivan could sell up in the future.
“Well, I might, that’s our prerogative,” he said. “But do I look like I’m in it for profit?
“I’m the kid who used to bunk in at West Ham. I grew up with a life of poverty as a young boy. It’s a dream. “Nobody believes the story but how can a kid in the East End of London, with his a*** hanging out of his trousers, how can that guy end up making it in the Premier League?”
Gold also took time to speak out in defence of Sullivan and Brady. “Yes it has [been a dream] and for people to say the story is that we’re liars, that we’ve taken all the money, is wrong,” he said.
“We make mistakes, but we’re not liars.
“David Sullivan’s not a bad person. He wants the club to be successful. Karren Brady works for the football club and she also wants the best for the club.” 2016-17 RELEGATED? SWANSEA No MIDDLESBROUGH Yes LEICESTER No HULL CITY Yes C PALACE No SUNDERLAND Yes 2017-18 RELEGATED? BRIGHTON No STOKE Yes HUDDERSFIELD No SOUTHAMPTON No SWANSEA CITY Yes WEST BROM Yes 2018-19 RELEGATED? NEWCASTLE No SOUTHAMPTON No BURNLEY No CARDIFF Yes FULHAM Yes HUDDERSFIELD Yes he is also aware of just how much stress he – and many other managers – are under.
“I had to clear my dad’s house yesterday and there was some of my mum’s stuff there, too,” said Potter, left.
“It’s not pleasant at a time when in the ideal world you’re trying to recharge for Premier League duties.
“But life is like that. Sometimes you have to