More Boardroom Upheaval At West Ham

West Ham United will hopefully look forward to a brighter future on the pitch but it was confirmed earlier today that there will be yet more upheaval off it, as the club go into the 2026/27 season in the Sky Bet Championship.

Back on 21 April, Vice-Chair Karren Brady revealed she was leaving her role at the club and just short of two weeks after the end of a disastrous Premier League campaign, David Sullivan has now made public the fact that he is also stepping down with immediate effect.

It has been well known for some considerable time now that a section of the ever-loyal fanbase have become extremely disillusioned with the way the club has been run since moving from Upton Park to the former Olympic stadium in Stratford at the start of the 2016/17 season and their feelings have been sporadically made clear for all to hear at games down the years.

Sullivan bought the club from the Icelandic bank Landsbanki back in January 2010 and in truth, ever since early 2024, it has not been an easy ride for the former Birmingham City Chairman.

At the end of 2023, the club looked as though they were well set for a fourth consecutive season of European football under then manager David Moyes, while the Scotsman was reportedly close to extending his stay in East London. However, after that, the teams’ form plummeted and following the tragic news that co-owner David Gold had passed away, matters have continued to spiral downwards ever since.

Of course, we all know how badly the so-called “new dawn” under Head-Coach Julen Lopetegui went as the Spaniard, together with then Technical Director Tim Steidten, set about rebuilding the squad but in all honesty, the duo made very poor use of the considerable amount of money acquired from the sale of former captain Declan Rice and after only six wins from his spell in charge, Lopetegui was swiftly replaced by Graham Potter with Steidten following him through the exit door a matter of weeks later.

Potter’s appointment in January 2025 was believed to be a step in the right direction. The club finished that campaign in mid-table and only avoided relegation due to the fact that the three promoted sides, along with both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur were in worse form than the Irons. The massive overspend of the previous campaign meant that Potter wasn’t afforded the funds he needed to strengthen the squad in the way he would have wanted so it wasn’t a real surprise that results weren’t improving.

Despite the club’s first win of the season, away at Nottingham Forest, fortunes weren’t getting any better in front of the home faithful. The atmosphere grew increasingly toxic with continued chants of “sack the Board” during their 3-0 home loss to Spurs before the season’s second international break in late September.

In the next game, Potter saw his side fall to another home defeat which led to more negative feedback from the fans. This meant yet another change of boss and Potter was removed from the hotseat in favour of Nuno Espírito Santo.

There was no big change in results with the Hammers still residing in the lower reaches of the table. That was until the new man in charge was allowed to make his first dive into the January transfer market. He realised that he needed to rebalance the squad and personally identified both Pablo Felipe and Valentín Castellanos as players that could help the team escape the drop come May.

After a disastrous home defeat to Nottingham Forest on 6 January, which was a result that helped the Tricky Trees pull away from danger. The Hammers suddenly found form and went on a run of seven games unbeaten in all competitions through to the beginning of May. This, together with poor home form and the continual off-pitch problems at Spurs, which resulted in the interim appointment of Igor Tudor as Thomas Frank’s replacement back on 13 February dropped them into the bottom three as a consequence.

Sadly the East Londoners lost their New Year momentum at the start of the final month of the campaign and their fierce rivals seemed to have found a spark again after they had eventually relieved Tudor of his duties and turned to former Brighton and Hove Albion Head-Coach Roberto De Zerbi. Although the Italian won just three of his seven games, the side from the north of the capital had a superior goal difference to the Hammers, meaning that De Zerbi’s men only required a point from their final day encounter at home to Everton to ensure that the Irons would be relegated for the first time in fourteen years and go down with both Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Sullivan was keen to stress that the reason for his sudden resignation wasn’t anything to do with the club but the section of supporters that were calling for change have finally got what they wanted and for the time being, interim Chief Executive Officer Karim Virani will oversee the day-to-day running of the club.

I believe that club owners should not take too much notice of those supporters who clearly go to games just to make their voices heard. However, as I said in my article when Potter left the club, Sullivan did attend most of the matches during his time at the helm, so those fans need to be careful what they wish for.

With the coaching staff preparing to get the team back to the Premier League at the first attempt, we will wait with bated breath to see what is next for this football club.