David Sullivan co-owner and main share holder of West Ham United has had to issue a statement on behalf of the club following the unsavoury events and images that preceded what was supposed to be, and finally was a wonderful night of football and celebration. Mr Sullivan's statement on the club's official site www.whufc.com in response to the events is as follows: "If we were to have scripted how our final game at the Boleyn would have played out, it wouldn't have been much different to last night's match. The West Ham family then all celebrated our legends and former players together in what was a truly fitting ceremony to say goodbye to our home of 112 years."Sadly, the actions of very small minority of people outside the ground prior to kick-off risks overshadowing those celebrations. I want to be clear - their behaviour was completely unacceptable and does not represent our Club or our values. "When I was asked about the incident prior to yesterday's game, I was unaware of the damage that had occurred to the Manchester United team bus. I want to apologise to Manchester United for that damage and assure them that we will be doing all we can to track down those responsible and ban them for life. "This morning I have already tasked my senior team to work with the police to identify them as their behaviour belongs in the past and not in a future that promises so much for our great Club." "I truly hope that in due course we will look back on what happened in the stadium rather than what happened outside and remember our farewell to the Boleyn for all the right reasons."
There have been conspiracy theory stories on social media that the supporters that attacked the Manchester United coach weren't even Hammers supporters but were Tottenham or Millwall fans wanting to 'spoil the party', however the truth is more than likely to be that a few tanked up 'pond life' fans, operating on an amoeba level of intelligence, thought that they might influence the result in their team's favour by conducting a spontaneous assault! The reason we use the term spontaneous is because, for some reason, similarly to when they played Tottenham recently, Manchester United chose to arrive late at the Boleyn despite being fully aware of the congestion their coach would face. This is not in any way meant to condone the actions of a mindless few, but the situation was served up on a plate to them. Fortunately with the amount of CCTV footage taken, both overt and covert, identifying and bringing the culprits to account should be possible. Life bans have been promised for those who participated, if indeed they were West Ham fans, whether they were intent on causing disorder or if is was a spur of the moment thing is irrelevant, because there are those who DO have an agenda against West Ham United, particularly those who will not let the Olympic Stadium anchor tenant deal go away. Those people seeking to besmirch West Ham will have a feeding frenzy in the next few days, and the club's International image will have been tarnished, but hopefully when the dust settles, the last night at the Boleyn will be remembered for a cracking game of football played in an electrifying atmosphere that will be hard to re-create, or will it? Next season awaits, but there is the matter of the final game against Stoke City coming up this Sunday, 3 points guarantees European football and with Liverpool and Southampton finishing strongly only 3 points will do unless they both slip up, which is entirely unlikely. - Ed
Comments
Very few could disagree with
Very few could disagree with your assertion, I watched on TV as the enormity of the situation unfolded, it indeed marred to a degree by a mindless drunken mob a truly momentous occasion. This is certainly not the "grand finale" that true , honest and hard working loyal supporters of our club will want to remember. The team performance was one of hard work, spirit and guile. The scenes outside and indeed some damage to seating and signage inside the stadium is a poor way to "celebrate" a very proud history and association with the Upton Park area. Hopefully the culprits will be caught and be rightly banned for life as the enjoyment of the majority is of prime importance not the attention seeking of "louts". When identified they should also be made to pay for the damage! Some will dismiss this as boozy fun or highly emotional actions yet if they were honest if Millwall or Tottenham fans had done the same the thoughts and words would be damning.
Ear ear
Ear ear
It can't be condoned but the
It can't be condoned but the less said about it the better. Certainly didn't scare the Man U players as they posted clips from their phones laughing about it. So maybe that reflect how bad it really was? Anyway it seems to me that it could have been a culmination of factors. Police, the club, maybe the council and the bus all seemed to under-estimate things. Why didn't the council close the road? Why didn't the club open the gates early to get people off the street, why didn't manure arrive earlier what did they expect the traffic to be like? And why didn't the police keep the coach flowing? I wanted to see a lot more pictures of the crowds on the street in good spirits but the papers are full of the negative. Anyone got pics of what the streets looked like packed with fans?
Daily Mirror
I take it John Cross of the mirror today ( wed ) is not a fan of west ham...( quote ) at least of course it allowed us to have 45 MORE mins of west hams seemingly never ending tribute to upton park...Blimey if it's that good why leave...We've had 2 solid days of it on sky it's hard to remember highbury gettingthis much attention let alone Bolton wanderers ...........
( twat ).
It's called taking pride in
It's called taking pride in your club and it's history John!! Whereas the drivel you write will end up wiping the backsides of the homeless people on the streets of Great Britain. Another fitting tribute!
Same goes for Joey Barton. Surely you have something better to be doing like attacking an innocent individual? Why stick your oar in? Probably him outside the stadium attacking the bus. Thug!
Watch this Guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akSXuDFkegA