0% Villa: Avram Grant sacked

[Dave Cooper please]

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls. Children of all ages, may I present to you, the one and only - Mr Paul Ince

Please let this happen.

[andyh]

The owners of that club really are a 'class act' aren't they ?
I wonder if Grant was allowed to travel back on the team coach or whether fuckers made him make his own way home.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

How to make friends by patronising the shit of them: Link to KUMB thread. Poor sods.

[Mazrim]

I have nothing but Sympathy with the Hammers fans. I did the moment those phallus-wrangling imbeciles darkened their doors. It's a proper club. Not the academy of football and they didnt win the world cup and they stole our kit, but a proper club nonetheless.

Still, I'm delighted that Tony Gale will taste his own tears today. The prick.


Oh and spawn of Miss Piggy is saying "Unhand me you sweaty, porcine, man-jawed demon-hag!"

[Whiney MacWhineface]

They've been an excellent club to watch, and though they do have a rather exalted view of themselves isn't that true of most football supporters. They've had a run of owners that show how lucky we are, and are stuck with this lot - who probably will get a decent manager in and have a track record of getting back up into the Premier League quickly, but at the cost of nearly all their dignity.

Their fan poll favourite is marginally Sam over O'Neill Though you have to wonder how desperate either would be to work for that crew).

[Concrete John]

Just saw on the BBC gossip page that Mclaren is their new manager.  Although the source is Talkshite (I know) it seems to be a definate as opposed to speculation.  Anyone else heard any news on this?

[The Left Side]

The owners of that club really are a 'class act' aren't they ?
I wonder if Grant was allowed to travel back on the team coach or whether fuckers made him make his own way home.

The players persuaded him to get on the coach as he offered to drive on his own, class act indeed.

[adrenachrome]

 
Grauniad

Steve McClaren rules himself out of West Ham job

• David Gold says club will take its time in finding new manager
• Paul Lambert wanted but unlikely to leave Carrow Road

    Dominic Fifield
    guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 May 2011 23.02 BST
   


West Ham United fear the depth of the crisis brought on by relegation to the Championship will thwart their pursuit of their preferred candidate, Norwich City's Paul Lambert, to replace Avram Grant at Upton Park. Their second-choice manager, the former England coach Steve McClaren, ruled himself out last night.

Grant was sacked in the tunnel at Wigan Athletic within minutes of the final whistle on Sunday, the 3-2 defeat having curtailed West Ham's six‑year stay in the top flight. The co‑owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, had drawn up a shortlist of potential successors in anticipation of the Israeli's departure at the end of the campaign, regardless of whether demotion was avoided, but must now appoint a manager charged with restoring them to the Premier League.

Although there is an acceptance that key players will leave, with the club's debts totalling some £80m and a further injection of £40m from the owners required just to cover the loss in cash flow, Gold and Sullivan remain committed to securing the best candidate possible to lead the team back to the elite at the first attempt. Lambert, a revelation at Norwich, whom he has propelled from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons, has emerged as their ambitious first choice, potentially working under a director of football at Upton Park.

It remains to be seen what level of funding the former Scotland international is granted to strengthen his squad at Carrow Road ahead of a daunting Premier League campaign. Even so West Ham may struggle to secure their man. Lambert is eager to experience the top division with Norwich and it is understood his instinct is to remain at the club – whose owners would be hostile to any approach for his services – which will prompt Gold and Sullivan to extend their search elsewhere.

McClaren, whose career has taken him from FC Twente in Holland to Wolfsburg since he was sacked as England manager in the autumn of 2007, would have represented a more experienced choice and was a candidate to succeed Gianfranco Zola at the Boleyn Ground a year ago. The 50-year-old is eager to return to work after being sacked at the Bundesliga club in February but favours holding out for a Premier League position.

"It is very flattering to be linked with a club of West Ham's size and historic stature, also one that has tremendous fans," he said. "However, at this moment in time I do not wish to be considered for the position. But I wish everybody at West Ham all the very best for the future."

Gold has described the appointment of the right manager as the board's "key requirement" and indicated the owners will take their time. "There's lot of work to do, enormous work, but, at the same time, we mustn't be rushed," he said. "This will be a very important appointment. You're choosing a manager good enough to get you out of the Championship and capable of continuing [in the Premier League] once you've achieved that. We're also preparing ourselves to move to a new stadium, something we've never done before. All these new challenges have to be addressed, so it's important we pick the right person."

Yet managers such as Martin O'Neill, who was close to joining West Ham in January, or Sam Allardyce are unlikely to be interested in the position now that the club have slipped into the Championship. Gus Poyet, a revelation with Brighton this season, was unimpressed with the treatment afforded Zola, his former Chelsea team-mate, by the current regime at Upton Park last year.

Interest is retained in Chris Hughton, who steered Newcastle back to the Premier League impressively at the first attempt, and Watford's Malky Mackay. Sullivan and Gold will also continue to monitor with interest events at the newly promoted Queens Park Rangers over the next few weeks despite Neil Warnock's insistence over the weekend that he has been assured of his future at Loftus Road following a meeting with the QPR board.

Regardless of who is placed in charge, an exodus is expected among the playing staff – Grant used 35 players this season – with Tottenham Hotspur to lead the chase for the £10m midfielder Scott Parker and also likely to pursue the young centre-half James Tomkins. Bids are also anticipated for players such as Mark Noble, Robert Green, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Demba Ba and Carlton Cole, who has interested Newcastle United.

A number of first-team players – led by Matthew Upson and Danny Gabbidon – are out of contract as of 1 July and likely to move on. Grant, who had signed a four-year contract last summer, is expected to receive a seven-figure pay‑off. There remains the possibility he could remain in English football, potentially with a return as director of football at Chelsea, though Guus Hiddink is Roman Abramovich's first choice to fill the role soon to be vacated by the Hamburg-bound Frank Arnesen.

   

[damon loves JT]

Nobody wants to work with those monstrous freaks.

[Steve R]

They really are a class act

[cheltenhamlion]

Lets be honest, Brady boasts all the class of a wank on a chip shop counter.

[brian green]

What does the sadistic sheriff in The Unforgiven say before Clint Eastwood put a hole in his chest?   I don't deserve this.

Avram Grant does not deserve this but Brady, Sullivan and Gold deserve it and more and worse.

That trio are the worst possible example of the wrong sort of people to run a football club.   With their track record they will deservedly struggle to get any half decent, sane manager to watch over the empty prairie of the Olympic Stadium.   There is only one person bad enough and stupid enough to take the job and I hope with all my heart he gets it.   Savage.

[VillaZogmariner]

I would fucking love it if they lost the Olympic Stadium too!

[UsualSuspect]

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Martin-Lipton-s-Lunchtime-Read-Ham-fisted-Avram-Grant-sacking-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-West-Ham-s-David-Sullivan-David-Gold-and-Karren-Brady-article736936.html

Sums them up perfectly

[gerags]

They really are a class act

To be fair, if they had their children travelling with them and were approached by an inevitably angry supporter on the train then I can understand him being protective of his family.