Daily WHUFC News - 2nd October 2017

CLUB OWNERSHIP, MONEY BALL, FINANCES AND A NEW INVESTOR
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 1 OCTOBER 2017 AT 8:10PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Written by @StevenMcCarthy9

I find myself as dismayed and disappointed, as many of you do with the start
of our season and the end of the transfer window. This won't be another
board out article nor will it be one where I am "up the owners arse!" as I
was so eloquently accused of being the other day. What it will be is a
totally unbiased and neutral view of finances under their owners at this
point. This week I think I have finally grasped just how much damage the
high expectations set by our owners have caused. I'll also focus upon
exactly how they are attempting to try and compete with the resources they
have. How I believe that they simply cannot do, compete without outside
investment, so buckle up, this is a long one.

Before I am accused of making excuses and being on the owners side, I will
give my personal opinion on the investment into the club: I personally feel
in the past 2 summer windows, we were tricked into believing the owners
would spend big on a 20+ goal a season striker and the "top talents" around
Europe. That in the end we have payed the price for looking at cheap deals
on potential or ageing players and quantity of players brought in, rather
than looking to wisely spend on quality. However when you take a step back,
what we did was pay high wages, high agent and signing on fees whilst
writing large appearance fees to a number of under par players! So we did
in fact spend, we just did so in different ways, paying a certain Algerian a
few million in a signing fee and big 70,000 a week wages (before various
bonus fees). I cannot and will not defend that, because whilst you can sign
players "cheaply" in the modern game due to contract lengths and in
Hernandez's case a release clause. I think we should have really dug deeper
and been willing to spend more, because in my opinion in terms of league
finishes, TV rights and potential European competitions, it would have more
than paid itself back.

A perfect example of this is the Carvalho debacle, we have all heard the
basics by now and we all know that despite a player, who is generally very
highly regarded having a release clause many saw as low, we refused to meet
said price.
We wanted to pay a rumoured 8million euros upfront and the rest on an
instalment and clause basis. Which club would accept that for their star
players? I know we certainly fought hard to keep Payet and subsequently
tried hard to achieve 25 Million. In my opinion, we simply took the mick.
We low balled and relied on the hope that Club Sporting would rather sell
than pay Carvalho a loyalty bonus of 5million Euros and in the end, we got
strong armed and firmly f'd…with the use of our own well publicised sex toy.



But now I've swerved any hint of board loving, this window in particular, we
felt the vast resources of numerous Premier League clubs do nothing short of
eclipse us in terms of spending! Some were expected in the forms of
Manchester City and United, Liverpool and Chelsea, however I keep hearing
the same and ultimately un-researched angry shouts about the likes of
Everton, West Brom and Leicester outspending us as a lack of ambition, this
is simply not the case. I hate seeing teams around us grow over us just as
much as any other fan! We should be looking to finish above and around
teams like Everton and West Brom. I believe had we spent wisely last
summer, and further added to this year with the players brought in, this
challenge would be something the fans would not even be questioning.
However, let's take a look at precisely why it is: Why have we been left
behind in terms of spending by these clubs? The long and short of it is
outside investors or outright ownership in the case of clubs like Everton,
Leicester, West Brom and Bournemouth.

First up, that team I always see popping up on my twitter feed with fans
baying for each other's blood!

Everton:

Everton spent big after the £90million sale of their most coveted asset in
Lukaku! However the spending we have seen from them was done so with the
sale and added riches of a new owner and the money he brought to the club as
the biggest factors. Farhad Moshiri is said to be worth twice the total of
Gold and Sullivan combined at an estimated figure of over £3billion!
Moshiri is a well known character to anyone following the football money men
as his ties to an eager to spend and unhappy board member at Arsenal, in the
form of Alisher Usmanov are clear. Now whilst the Arsenal man has publicly
stated he isn't a part of the Everton takeover, his investment company USM,
which possesses vast holdings in Russian mining and metals, and digital
corporations has pumped money into Everton by sponsoring its Training
ground…yes. A deal rumoured to be worth £30million over 5 years…for a
training ground sponsorship! If we want to go into the realm of gossip, it
is rumoured that Usmanov is said to be so unhappy at Arsenal's fall from
grace that he is considering selling his shares completely and buying into
Everton. Usmanov is worth an estimated 15 Billion Dollars…a figure almost
10 times that of Gold and Sullivan combined. I am not stating we should not
be ambitious and spend, but when being realistic about it, in terms of
finance I think that even removing the rumour of personal investment from
Usmanov we cannot compete financially with Everton when you view the
sponsorship and future developments they have planned. This is a club who
are looking to achieve a similar goal stated by our owners, to compete for
top 4 eventually, they are not setting there sights on the League yet, but a
trophy and strong finish. One thing Everton are doing very differently (and
I will add, that in my opinion they are doing properly) is building their
own stadium at the Bramley Moore dock with a proposed capacity of 55,000.
The city council have already agreed to the proposed deal and hinted at
financial aid in the project, this allows Everton a greater budget toward
the transfer funds and player wages they already have. However this new
investment and now secure plan for growth and future increase in gate money
has also allowed Everton the chance to sustainably offer the same large
wages we at West Ham were able to give through our ticket sales, marketing
and overall turnover.

Take for example Wayne Rooney, Sandro Ramirez and Davy Klaassen who are all
supposedly on over 100,000 a week. Yannick Bolasie on 80,000 and both
Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford on 90,000 a week. The overall Everton
wage structure is now growing beyond ours. At the moment, we have
Hernandez, Arnautovic and Hart are all on high wages at our club, said to be
over 100,000 a week. Why is it that Everton can offer this? Well Moshiri
instantly cleared Everton's debt with a loan, giving them a much stronger
base upon which to develop the above plans.

In our case we were well and truly in the midst of a potential financial
meltdown before G&S were involved, something that was only made worse by our
impending relegation. From there on, it was an uphill climb for the owners
to settle our debts and make us an attractive proposition for lucrative
investment from sponsors, based on anything other than club history. It
was only by securing the high capacity of the London Stadium that we are
able to sustainably give multiple players high wage contracts. Hernandez is
on 140,000 a week before bonuses, this is a figure that had we remained at
The Boleyn we would more than likely have only been able to offer to 1
player. However now we are seeing the likes of Lanzini and Antonio being
touted as high earners onto of the Hart and Arnie contracts mentioned
previously, with the club having the ability to offer far higher wages
across a squad than we have ever had at the club.



West Brom and Bournemouth are interesting points of debate and the main
reasons for me writing this long article.
Both have been the beneficiaries of outside investment and whilst the full
scale of the Chinese investors finances is not entirely clear, I was able to
find that Lai Guochuan, the outright owner of West Brom is said to in the
latest "conservative" estimate I could find online for his net worth be
around 2.8Billion GBP! And that is without the backing of his Chinese
investment group. They however have no known plans to develop a stadium and
will be relying solely on owner wealth and marketing turnover from now on.
And the aforementioned Bournemouth now have the considerable finance of 25%
steak holder in the form of US based investment group Peak6. Going off
figures online I found with a simple google, this company is worth almost
$12.2Billion. Bournemouth also show plans of future stadium development and
with that in mind they have been able to buy big in terms of both funds and
wages.

What we do have in favour of us though, is our position in terms of overall
revenue. As of July 17th we are placed at 15th by Forbes in terms of the
Worlds Richest Clubs, but this creates a notion that I think is dangerous
for fans.
It is giving us purely the amount of money generated by the club alone
during a financial year and it's judged value by way of assets and marketing
power. We are marketed at a value of 634million dollars, with a revenue of
$213million. This is were our budgets are made under Gold and Sullivan, we
take out loans based upon our value and ability past and present to pay
those loans.
The more money we make, the more money we can spend, However what we cannot
do financially is compete with the mentioned Billionaires above. To put
this into context, Gold and Sullivan are said to be worth around 1.4Billion
GBP combined. We are simply unable to compete on a larger scale with clubs
who have such investment available.

I want to say thank you for reading the article if you made it this far! I
believe that with wise spending we can easily cement a top 10 place for
years to come, however we cannot hope to compete at a top level on anything
other than a freak like Leicester season if we cannot find investment for
the owners due to the mind boggling numbers we are seeing spent these days
The news that American Billionaire J.Albert "Tripp" Smith has purchased a
10% stake in our club is fantastic! Personal Wealth estimates and figures
were hard to find on this man, as the sale was done through him alone and
unlike Bournemouth, there is seemingly no group behind him. What I did
manage to find was that he had sold his company GSO Capital Partners for a
cool $1billion (Dr.Evil stance). Purchasing a 10% stake in our club does
mean we can have the added deep pockets of Mr.Smith behind us, but also
means that Gold and Sullivan remain in majority control. Which regardless of
your views on their ownership does mean that we are experienced and dare I
say, steady hands when it comes to the running of our football club.

But before I finish this article, I believe that the best way for us to
really make up for a lack of spending this Summer is to make the London
Stadium a place players from the opposition hate to come! And I hope this
season we can replicate the electric atmospheres we witnessed against Spurs
and even West Brom last year.

Thank you Ex and all @TheWestHamWay should they post this, I'm
@StevenMcCarthy9 and thanks for reading

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CHANGES AFOOT
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 1 OCTOBER 2017 AT 7:53PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
By Malcolm Atkins @malatk

Amid all the talk around our form, league position and Slav's future, a
rather interesting week off the field seems to have almost slipped by.

The 10% of the club that was still owned by the Icelandic connection was
sold to a very rich American by the name of J. Albert (Tripp) Smith – no, I
had never heard of him either. A bit of research , well google search,
showed that he is a Senior Managing Director of Blackstone, an investment
capital operation that bought the company, GSO, that Tripp and two
colleagues formed and grew.

This seems to have made relatively small waves so far, which is odd in
itself. Blackstone are big players, handling Billions of Dollars' worth of
investments for their clients and themselves. Apparently Tripp has invested
independently rather than as part of Blackstone, however it seems unlikely
that this is the result of some sudden sentimental fondness for football in
general or West Ham in particular. Although it is stated he has no plans to
increase his holding, GSO's modus operandi has been to invest themselves in
organisations they recommend to their clients, I suspect there is more going
on here than anyone is saying. That may be a good or bad thing. On the
surface, access to Billions could be very exciting, however these guys are
in the process of making money, that is not necessarily bad for the club as
they would want to build the brand but I guess we will have to wait and see.

So will Gold and Sullivan sell? I know they claim they intend to keep it in
the family but – well, they would say that wouldn't they! David Gold's
daughters have their own business interests and the Sullivan boys are a long
way off being ready to run a premier league club. I have always believed
that is the plan, build the value of the club and sell on, maybe keeping a
seat on the board in the process if possible. What about the timing though?
Well I started this thought process adding 2 and 2 and making 5, looking at
a possible combination of events. I read that the penalty clauses for
selling the club (following stadium move) last five years, I was wrong – it
is nearly ten. The five years tied in with the other news of the week.
Birmingham looks set to be awarded the commonwealth games for 2022. So how
does that affect West Ham? Well they are going to upgrade the athletics
stadium in Birmingham into a shiny new 50,000 seater arena which would
reduce to 25,000 after the games.

With the Olympics not due back for a generation and the world's having been
in London this year it will be some time before another major games is in
the UK, the prohibitive cost of transforming the London Stadium and West
Ham's right to influence dates would leave the Birmingham stadium ideally
placed to be UK Athletics preferred home.

I initially though the Commonwealth dates tied in to the penalty clauses but
was wrong! What my searching did tell me though is that the clauses are not
that spiteful; especially as the formula to be used factors in debt. The
more debt, the lower the penalties; which would go a long way to explain the
model of loans from the directors to the club. The interest they are
recouping would offset the penalties. A 350 million pound sale would mean
around 19 million in penalty clauses paid to the public purse, 95 million
debt to be paid off (Mostly to Gold and Sullivan) would leave 265 million
for Gold and Sullivan – a profit of around £130 million over what they have
paid for shares so far (source City AM.com) – so the figures work for them!

That is not to say that the Commonwealth games are not relevant. A new home
for Athletics would clear the way for the stadium to be sold to West Ham.
Money could be recouped to the taxpayer, Athletics would have its own
stadium and the London Stadium could be reworked into a permanent football
ground.

All of this makes West Ham extremely attractive to potential US investors
already well aware of the Premier League brand. London is one of the most
important cities in the world; hence the board being so keen to promote the
London name and the Premier League is the biggest brand in football.

This is not meant to knock Gold and Sullivan, they are not perfect but those
of us that have long felt West Ham are a potentially much bigger club than
they have ever demonstrated are vindicated by Gold and Sullivan being able
to sell 52000 season tickets. That combined with the potential of owning the
stadium which sits a couple of miles from one of the centres of world
finance makes West Ham, as I have said, quite an attractive prospect.

For me, and I could be way off, a lot of things fall into place. The debt
model, the relative recent silence from the board and the reduction in squad
size; this coupled with caution with funds at a time when it should be
freeing up and the procrastination around Bilic's position. Are they at the
beginning of moves to sell up? I could be wrong as I say but I believe this
recent acquisition of 10% is the precursor to a take-over. We shall see.

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West Ham United 1-0 Swansea City
By Timothy Abraham
BBC Sport

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic felt a sense of "relief" after Diafra Sakho's
late goal secured victory over Swansea and eased the pressure on him. The
atmosphere at London Stadium had been tense with fans unhappy about the
performance of Bilic's side for the majority of the game. But Sakho eased
some of the scrutiny on Bilic when he got on the end of fellow substitute
Arthur Masuaku's cross in the 90th minute and stabbed the ball home from
close range. "It is a relief, a great three points for us," Bilic said. "I
know it is shallow when the manager says there is pressure, but that makes a
difference. "To keep the support of the crowd we need to keep producing
minute after minute and we did not do that in the first half. The guys on
the bench lifted the team and crowd."

Swansea were positive with their approach but a long-range effort from
Wilfried Bony, parried by Joe Hart, in the first half was the best they had
to show for their endeavour. Home fans chanted "sacked in the morning" at
Bilic when his side trailed 3-0 in a 3-2 defeat by Tottenham last weekend.
For the most of this contest there was little respite for the Croat as his
side laboured against a disciplined and organised Swansea side. Indeed there
were jeers and boos for Bilic's double substitution when Masuaku and Sakho
were introduced for Javier Hernandez and Andre Ayew. Ultimately, the
49-year-old's decision to throw on both players made the difference, though,
as Masuaku's superb run and cross found Sakho's perfectly timed run. With
West Ham's next three matches against Burnley, Brighton and Crystal Palace,
Bilic will hope the confidence from this victory can spur his side on to
greater things.

Swansea solid but lack cutting edge

Swansea managed just 10 shots on target before this encounter, which head
coach Paul Clement blamed on a hectic end to the transfer window. Their play
was largely tidy and they used the ball intelligently, with Renato Sanches
in particular catching the eye for the visitors. However, there was a stark
lack of cutting edge to Swansea's play. Despite the presence of Tammy
Abraham, Jordan Ayew and Bony - for the first half at least - they managed
just one shot on target in the entire contest. "A combination of the
delivery and the movement need to be better in the final third," Clement
said. "We are closer to getting the balance right, but there is still work
to be done."

Swansea's first away defeat sent them into the bottom three and, unless
Clement gives them more bite in attack, another relegation battle beckons
this season.

Man of the match - Andy Carroll (West Ham)

The powerful striker's partnership with Javier Hernandez never really
clicked but he was a menace to the Swansea backline. Carroll seems to be
getting sharper and his all-round workrate was unrelenting. He was
unfortunate not to score when he struck the corner of the goal with an
improvised shot.

Swans lose away record - the stats

This game produced a total of just 15 shots; only Burnley v Huddersfield on
23 September featured fewer in the top flight this season (13).
West Ham have registered three clean sheets in their last four Premier
League games, after managing none in the five before that.
Swansea conceded their first away Premier League goal in 495 minutes of
action and suffered their first away defeat of the season.
Four of the 10 Premier League games where winning goals have been scored in
the 90th minute or later in 2017 so far have been against Swansea.
Diafra Sakho netted his first Premier League goal since November 2016, when
he scored against Manchester United.
Six of West Ham's seven league goals this season have come in the second
half, which equates to a league-high 86% proportion.

'Fans have a right to their opinion' - what they said

West Ham goalkeeper Joe Hart: "It was a difficult atmosphere in some ways.
I'm never going to criticise the fans, they come here and pay their money
and have a right to their opinion. "We have to focus on the win. We have had
seven points since the international break [at the beginning of September].
"It is on all of us to take the pressure off. We don't get sucked into the
speculation, we just stick together and fight hard."

Clement expects better from Swansea attackers

Swansea head coach Paul Clement: "I think the result was a little harsh in
that I don't think that they weren't better than us as such. "We just did
not defend that last attack very well. They created a really good scoring
chance, which is what we didn't do. "We did not stop the cross coming in,
did not defend it in the box and if you concede that late you do not give
yourself much chance."

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic: ""We did not play well in the first half
after a good first 10 minutes, making basic mistakes and Swansea were much
better on the ball. We have to play better and we can play better. "The
changes were crucial with Manuel Lanzini, Arthur Masuaku and Diafra Sakho
coming on. "We played a very offensive formation in the first half but
lacked the link between the defence and attack and that was why Lanzini made
a big impact."

What's next?

West Ham face a tricky trip to Burnley on Saturday, 14 October (15:00 BST),
while Swansea host newly promoted Huddersfield at the Liberty Stadium at the
same time on the same day.

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Keeping a fully fit West Ham squad happy is 'impossible' for Slaven Bilic
JACK ROSSER
ES Sport

Slaven Bilic believes it will be impossible to keep all his West Ham
forwards happy as they return to full fitness. Bilic welcomed Manuel Lanzini
back to the fold during their 1-0 win over Swansea City, while Michail
Antonio recovered from a groin injury picked up a week ago. The Hammers
manager, has had persistent battles with injuries to key players over the
past twelve months, now knows he has hard task in finding balance in the
squad. "My job is not to make them happy," Bilic said. "I mean it is a bonus
if they are all happy, but it is impossible to have all the players happy.
"I have to make a fine balance between being solid and being dangerous when
we have the ball. "Sometimes it gives you a headache, who you will play when
they are all fit. But my job is to look after the team and to treat every
one of them in a good and decent way, then to try and keep them [on their]
toes for the whole season. "Put it this way, if Diafra Sakho and Arthur
Masuaku weren't on their toes last week or the week before they shouldn't be
able to perform like this [combining for the winner], and that is what I
have to do."

The Hammers would have been at their full complement going forward if it
were not for Marko Arnautovic's absence. The summer signing withdrew from
the squad on Friday night through illness, but come the end of the
international break, Bilic should be a full roster to pick from - meaning
there is plenty to think about for the manager. "But you are right," Bilic
added. "When we are thinking about our team I want to be solid and you have
to be solid when you play on this level of football but we were trying to
build a team that can also play with the ball and pass with the ball and be
dangerous, so it is good to have them back."

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WEST HAM 1, SWANSEA 0. LATE RELIEF TO CALM THE STORM.
By David Hautzig 30 Sep 2017 at 17:15
WTID

When Carlo Ancellotti was sacked by Bayern Munich the other day, my heart
skipped a beat. I recalled the time when it was reported, or maybe
manipulatively leaked, that Karen Brady was after the Italian a few years
back. Every sense of logic and common sense told me that replacing Bilic
with Ancellotti was an absurd pipe dream of the highest order. But I decided
to ask a friend of mine who knows the former Milan, Madrid, Chelsea, and now
Bayern manager if there was any reason for me to fantasize.

No was the pretty succinct answer.

I made my feelings about Slaven Bilic known after the Newcastle match. While
many agreed with me, and with Sean Whetstone in his rather controversial
piece the other day, there were those that expressed….displeasure, shall we
say….with both of us. Sean took far heavier punches than I did, I must
admit. Just imagine if Nigel Kahn had let either of us feel his wrath!

There was a healthy dose of irony in the starting eleven to me. When we were
chasing Andy Carroll after his loan spell, I remember the almost minute by
minute updates on Twitter. I genuinely believed signing him would virtually
guarantee we wouldn't ever have to look over our shoulders. Once that bubble
burst from his almost comical injury list, I always thought his return to
the lineup would be the panacea to all that ailed us. That has all changed.
So when the original projected lineup today did not include him, I was
pleased. Then Arnautovic caught my son's ear infection or what have you, and
there he was. Number Nine. And my spirits dropped. Which may be unfair, but
that's how I felt. Then there was a clamor that Bilic was going to set us up
4-4-2, but I wasn't so sure. When things seem obvious for us, it never
happens. Today didn't go according to plan, but at least it ended well.

West Ham asked the first question in the fourth minute when Cresswell sent a
cross into the box. Antonio met the delivery near the far post and slammed a
volley into the ground. It bounced high and towards the far post, forcing
Fabianski into a diving save with his right hand.

The next ten minutes were a little worrying in that Swansea had more of the
possession by some margin, and when the home side did get the ball they
either ran wildly with it, eventually losing it, or sent a pass to nobody.
It culminated in the 15th minute when Bony received the ball just on top of
the West Ham 18 yard box. Fonte and Reid backed off, and Bony let it go.
Hart made a diving save, and the contest thankfully stayed at nil-nil.

By the time we hit the halfway mark of the first half, the crowd at The
London Stadium sounded restless. With good reason I might add. Swansea had
enjoyed 70% of the possession, and West Ham looked rather dire. Bilic
switched Antonio and Ayew on the flanks, but it had so little impact it took
minutes for me to notice the change. Passes were terrible, touches were made
of lead, and the side looked genuinely lost. Against a side with more
quality, it could have been a much uglier scene. I looked for things to be
optimistic and hopeful about. The Blueberry pie from a terrific local farm
that the wife was bringing home later came to mind immediately.

From the perspective of clutching at straws, West Ham at least made everyone
pay attention in the 37th minute when Antonio sent a long pass to Carroll on
the right wing. Not exactly where you want Carroll to receive the ball, but
whatever. Carroll crossed to Ayew in the box, not exactly where you want
Ayew to receive a high cross, but whatever. Ayew sent a weak header that
Fabianski cradled like a stuffed animal, but whatever.

West Ham looked a bit better in the final five minutes of the opening half,
sending in a few crosses for Carroll and Company to chase. We even won a
corner. Thank heavens for small favors.

Halftime
West Ham 0
Swansea 0

If you wanted a highlight that described West Ham this season so far, Mark
Noble's complete mis-kick in our penalty area at the start of the second
half would be perfect. And in all fairness, Noble played well against Spurs
and wasn't as awful as the rest of the side in the first half today. So I
wasn't having a go at the captain.

In the 53rd minute, I thought West Ham were going to open the scoring when
Antonio looped in a cross from the right to the far post. When Carroll began
his run to meet the ball, I thought he would get there. In the end, he was
half a yard short. Would that signal an upturn in fortunes on the day? Time
would tell.

The crowd went from restless to openly annoyed in the 58th minute when Ayew
lost the ball while attempting a run into the Swansea penalty area, which
was followed quickly by an awful cross from Cresswell, which was then
followed by Noble losing the ball when West Ham were on the offensive. It
was all going quite badly at that time, and West Ham needed a spark.
Something to give the crowd a reason to liven up.

Cue Manuel Lanzini for Noble. I would have taken Ayew off, but what do I
know?

By the 70th minute, something dawned on me. Despite playing the 4-4-2 so
many were asking for, I couldn't recall Hernandez seeing the ball. At all.
Which only added to my concern about what I was watching and what we were in
store for the rest of the season. This squad should look at least like a
competent Premier League side, and we didn't by a country mile.

In the 75th minute, West Ham were extremely fortunate to not go down one-nil
when Olsson ran the ball from the left to the top of the West Ham penalty
area and tried a curling shot on goal. If there had been more curl on that
shot, it would have gone in because Hart was beaten. The fact I was ready to
accept an abject nil-nil draw at that point wasn't a good omen.

I scared the absolute life out of my poor cat in the 86th minute when
Masuaku sent a low cross into the box that Carroll got a little touch on and
curled a shot towards goal. Fabianski didn't move, and the ball looked to
move in slow motion as it floated and then banged against the post. I
slammed my fists on the desk holding up my IPad, causing it to fall down. My
electronics looked a lot like my team.

If there has been one man on West Ham that has made a difference when he has
come on this season it has been Masuaku. The past few matches have seen him
deployed as a substitution on the left side of midfield. He has shown skill
and endeavor, particularly with his crossing. In the 89th minute, he made a
run down the left that looked almost exactly like the one he did last week
to set up Kouyate's goal. Today, he delivered a ball that beat two or three
Swansea defenders and Sakho was there to tuck it in to the top corner of the
net.

Final Score
West Ham 1
Swansea 0

"What a good change from the manager. Well done the manager. Great change.
The manager has made an inspirational decision for me" said Tony Gale. I'd
add the Sakho inclusion to that commentary, because those two made the
difference to me. And despite the concerns that remain for me about Bilic,
he was the man that made those changes so he must be applauded for them.

There was a very famous basketball coach and executive for the Boston
Celtics named Red Auerbach. Think of him as the Fergie of basketball. He won
more NBA Championships than I can even count. One of his best players, and
one of the best players in the history of the sport was John Havlicek. And
he almost never started a game. In fact, the NBA has an award for the best
"Sixth Man" that was created in his honor. Auerbach used to say he didn't
care who started a game for him, that it was more important who finished it.
Maybe Bilic could borrow that ideal and twist it a bit because for me the
eleven who finished the match deserve to wear the shirt in two weeks. Or
maybe not.

I'm just happy we won.

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