• Premier League

Gold and Sullivan take control of West Ham United

ESPN staff
January 19, 2010
David Sullivan and David Gold have big ambitions for West Ham © Getty Images
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David Sullivan and David Gold have completed their takeover of West Ham and Sullivan has already confirmed to Soccernet that he has a seven-year plan to take the Hammers into the Champions League.

Sullivan said: "We have a seven-year plan to take West Ham into the top four. We mean business with our seven-year plan, and if we don't make West Ham such a big club we will have failed. That is the extent of our ambitions for West Ham.

"We want to do it in the name of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. We want West Ham back to their former glories when these guys played for the club.

"People forget that I gave Bobby Moore a job a few years after he finished in football. I made him sports editor of my sports publication, gave him £100,000 when that was a lot of money and it was only really a PR job as he worked one day a week for me, but he deserved to be looked after."

Sullivan is a big West Ham fan and fought to win the battle for control of the club. He added: "It was a struggle all the way, and we finally pulled it off close to midnight. There were two others fighting hard as well, Tony Fernandes came close and the Italian deposited £50 million with Rothschilds as a sign of good faith, but we have got it and I cannot tell you how delighted we are."

Sullivan confirmed that Karen Brady will be hired to oversee the transformation of the club. Sullivan said: "She's on her way there now."

A City insider close to the deal revealed on Tuesday morning: "The deal was sealed around 11.30 last night and means the enterprise value of the club is £105 million. "The debts are £70 million including the monies still owed to Sheffield United, and is between £15 million and £20 million owed to clubs in transfer instalments."

Sullivan and Gold have paid around £50 million for a 50% stake in the club, with an option to buy the other 50%. The source added: "All the money goes straight into the club."

That will enable Sullivan and Gold to conclude at least two transfers immediately. It is understood that the new owners have had two signings in the pipeline for some time and were getting frustrated with the end of the transfer window approaching, so demanded that the deal went through on Monday night.

It is also understood that Sullivan and Gold are critical of the way the consortium of banks have been running the club and that there are restrictions they want to see lifted, so they can do it "their way".

The former Birmingham owners plan to call a press conference at Upton Park later on Tuesday and are expected to be critical of the level of crippling debts run up by the club. That means there are sure to be changes behind the scenes with Karen Brady, formerly managing director at Birmingham, being called up to sort out the mess.

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