TEN years ago next month David Sullivan and David Gold bought West Ham from Icelandic bankrupt Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson for £105million.
It looked to be two East End boys made good returning to their ‘manor’ to restore local pride and passion.
Saturday’s defeat against Leicester was the final straw for Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham reignCredit: PA:Press Association
But that is not quite how things have worked out for the Cockney Chuckle Brothers.
For whatever grand vision the joint owners might have held when they completed their takeover, it surely did not involve a team of mercenaries going through the motions in a soulless concrete bowl.
Wary supporters began to fear the worst when human dump trucks Mido and Benni McCarthy were signed within two weeks of the boardroom buyout.
The heavyweight has-beens have been followed by a steady procession of spectacularly poor acquisitions from a club cutting more corners than a cowboy builder.
From Modibo Maiga via Antonio Nocerino, Sofiane Feghouli, Simone Zaza, Andre Ayew and Jose Fonte through to £45m record signing Sebastien Haller, West Ham have cornered the market in flawed footballers.
Saturday’s front four cost £114m and have managed the grand total of six Premier League goals between them all season.
Felipe Anderson, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals could not have looked less interested if they had tried, which they did not.
And the labouring Haller has clearly been dragged down by his hefty transfer fee.
‘Human dump truck’ Mido failed to score for West HamCredit: Bradley Ormesher – The Times
Carlos Sanchez was so far off the pace in midfield he was in danger of being lapped by Leicester’s eager reserve team.
But it was Issa Diop’s comical bid to foul Kelechi Iheanacho and Ayoze Perez ahead of the Demarai Gray winner which proved to be the final nail in the coffin of mumbling boss Manuel Pellegrini.
Gold and Sullivan thought they had pulled off a real coup when they persuaded the former Manchester City and Real Madrid coach to take charge last year.
Yet it was clear right from the off that West Ham was the wrong time, wrong place for the ageing Chilean, lured from Hebei China Fortune by a contract worth £7million-a-year.
Pellegrini’s dour persona and lack of communication skills made him a painfully poor choice for a club struggling to reconnect with its supporters.
But while he failed to convince the punters, he somehow managed to persuade West Ham to appoint the equally unimpressive Mario Husillos as director of football and to spend £162.5m on new players.
The upshot of that muddled thinking is a fifth relegation battle in ten years, with a team just one point off the drop zone.
They have taken a mere seven points from nine home games this season and have lost their last four at the London Stadium.
£45m Sebastien Haller has struggled to live up his price tagCredit: AFP or licensors
Booed off again at Saturday’s final whistle, it was clear Pellegrini had reached the end of the road and would soon be joining Gianfranco Zola, Avram Grant, Sam Allardyce, Slaven Bilic and David Moyes as former West Ham employees.
That left the owners sifting haplessly through the ranks of the managerial unemployed once again.
And now they have asked Moyes to return to the role he occupied for six months before Pellegrini’s appointment.
Quite how that will go down with the club’s fan-base remains to be seen.
Moyes’ last spell in charge was most notable for pitch-invading protestors and the signing of £9m Jordan Hugill.
But at least he managed to rescue them from a similarly perilous position.
And that is as much as West Ham can realistically hope for right now.
He also knows exactly what he will be letting himself in for back at a club where nothing is ever quite what it seems.
Having been cast aside in favour of Pellegrini last year, Moyes will not be making the same mistakes again this time.
A long-term contract and a greater say in the recruitment policy will top his list of demands for Gold and Sullivan.
If those concessions can be secured, Moyes could be in the dugout for New Year’s Day’s crucial home game with fellow strugglers Bournemouth.
His first task will be getting to grips with a disinterested squad which has been allowed to drift unchecked for far too long.
If he can shake the players out of their torpor, there is still the nucleus of a half-decent team waiting to emerge.
But there are not going to be any quick fixes at a club that is paying the price for years of instability.
And until the owners abandon their short-term philosophy and start planning beyond the next six months, West Ham will continue their lurch from pillar to post.
Manuel Pellegrini sacked by West Ham lying a single point above the relegation zone after winning just two of last 14
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
