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The last two games have put a different feel on the season and the fact we failed to score in either game highlighted for many fans the failure to replace Haller after allowing him to leave without any replacement in the pipeline.
Naturally, many fans then started playing the blame game into who was at fault for the lack of any genuine strikers at the club.
Top of the list and the de-facto go-to people are the two Daves. They are underinvesting asset strippers who have failed to back the manager again after throwing him under a bus done where along the route. Next in line who Dave Moyes or dithering Dave to give him his blame game name. He is too tight with the money and takes too long to make up his mind over players.
When Moyes admitted he had money available but didn’t want to use that to sign another “has been” or “unknown gamble” as West Ham have constantly done in the past, many of the participants playing the Blame Game thought he was lying to protect the owners.
What if Moyes was speaking the truth with what he was saying – there was money available but he preferred to use that in the summer should we as fans of the club just accept that without any criticism of him?
What about those that constantly non-stop blame the owners for everything wrong with the club?
Do they undo the cause of #GSBOUT by constantly blaming them for everything to the point that certain fans now look on that as the looneys spouting off as usual, because when genuine reasons for disliking the ownership are lost inside the bluster and the faux outrage that appears at every bad result the team has?
Let us look at a couple of the often used complaints – asset strippers and underinvestment.
What assets have been stripped from the club?
The obvious asset is that we no longer have is Boleyn Ground, sold for a price that to those outside of the construction industry looks a bargain to those that bought it.
Throw in that the original buyers sold it a year later for 2 million pounds more than the 38 million they paid for it and that the site is delivering over 800 units selling from £350,000 then it does seem someone is profiteering from that deal.
What we have to remember is the club sold the land at an auction they ran as well. The price we received is said to be the highest but we don’t know that for sure, we just have to trust them when they say that.
The Auction was in 2013 and naturally, land prices have changed and no one could know whether that would go up or down, also in 2013 the club needed funds urgently and the 38 million went on debt covering and our share of the Olympic stadium upgrade costs.
I am led to believe that the club saves money by renting the stadium for a fixed price than the upkeep required on The Boleyn Ground.
Has it been Asset stripped from the club by the owners?
Other assets the club have are the players.
The graphic is of a spreadsheet by Mike Hare on Twitter of the transfer buys of the owners, the prices paid are in my opinion educated guesses as generally we never know the real price paid out, nor can it show how much in agents fees are paid and other fees that seem to be paid when transfers are done.
It does rather well for me show the outlay of money that we could probably all agree has been badly spent as a whole, so I doubt players have been asset-stripped as they could say they have been replaced, also for me it shows they have invested in the squad just poorly.
The assets the club had that there is no hiding from have been stripped from the club were the items gifted or collected by the club sold at the auction after the last game at Upton Park.
Trophies, ex-players shirts boots etc, pictures, paintings &signs. Pennants and other gifts from foreign clubs played over the history of us.
If it could be carried out or unscrewed they sold it.
I think those groups leading the #GSBOUT should produce the reasons why they are and then it may then stop the false reasons being argued over.
Thanks to you all that watched my new video last week and this week you have two videos to watch if you so choose.
Not only my “view from the shed” of the VAR use in the Fulham game but also after seeing a comment on here last week I have started a series showing parts of my vast football memorabilia collection.
This week my first programme I kept and the first football magazines I collected. Hope you enjoy them
View From The Shed E.2
My Collection