Alvin Martin on Talkshite

West Ham legend Alvin Martin has told talkSPORT he has no confidence whatsoever in the club’s owners David Gold and David Sullivan.

The Hammers are chasing promotion back to the Premier League after relegation last season, but have struggled to find any consistent form and are in danger of slipping out of the top two and into the play-off places.

And Martin reckons the responsibility for the mess West Ham find themselves in lies squarely at the door of Gold and Sullivan.
“West Ham are down in the Championship and I hold the two new owners responsible.”Alvin Martin

“Sam Allardyce has been brought in to get West Ham out of the division and I think he will but there is a responsibility that has to go beyond that,” Martin said.

“Why are they in the Championship in the first place? That’s what I ask myself. They shouldn’t even be down there in the first place and who should take responsibility for that? Two people, David Gold and David Sullivan.

“They came into the club and they had a manager called Zola and they made his position pretty uncomfortable, they made public statements and they undermined his authority. He kept them up and they decided to get rid of that manager.

“The following year they appointed Avram Grant and they ended up going down. But they didn’t just go down; they were close to appointing a new manager and undermined Avram Grant. They didn’t get their new manager and then were left in dire straits.

“West Ham are down in the Championship and I hold the two new owners responsible. They kept saying we don’t sack and hire managers willy-nilly but they’ve done that since they came in and they’ve made big, big mistakes.

“There are a lot of things that have gone wrong there and for the life of me I have no confidence in them whatsoever.”

I disagree with most of what he has said , Yes the two davids made two big mistakes in sacking Zola and appointing Grant as manager But apart from that they have been pretty good owners and seem to have got are depths down quite alot since they come in and have also stood by the manager when it comes to transfers in and out of the club apart maybe under Zola

I Still belive that if we had kepted Zola we would still be in the prem now as he had the players playing for him and I have no doubt that the following season would of been one like his first with us where it was only down to injuries we missed out on a 7th place finish !

Sam Allardyce : He has deffo made us hard to beat this year but his style of football still pissies me off everytime we play , The signings he has made have been outstanding when you think that we are playing in the championship this year . I was confident we would go up automaticly however now Iam not so sure - If we are to do automaticly then it seems we are intent on doing it the hard way

I can agree with Alvin to a certain extent, but G&S put too much effort into getting the OS, and not enough on team matters. When we first 'got' the OS they then turned their attention on installing a new manager, but they didn't cover their backs, the deal went pear-shaped and they had no plan 'B'

Only when it was too late did they appoint a new manager, and their hands were tied as to whom they could go for. This manager had to get us promoted at the first attempt, and so forsaking all else....... sexy football played on the ground, it had to be Allerdyce....ugly football, hoofing the ball into the air and to nobody in particular.

We were getting away with it until recently, but once again there is no plan 'B' ..........

The writing was on the wall-Harry Houdini wouldn't have kept us up. It is easy to comment on retrospect and everyone does so-slightly surprised it is coing from Alvin though. So the board should have sacked John Lyall when we was relegated in 78(?)and it was all their fault then but all the players and managers doing when they got promoted?? So the board at the time were right to sack John Lyall when we were relegated again???

I don't envy a board/chairmans role in a football club. No sod is ever happy with them-when times are bad they say "sack the board" when times are gtood the board had nothing to do with it. A one way hiding to nothing. Thick skin is required and G&S have thicker than most-throughout their business life.

The best thing about the reign of BFS is they have shut up a bit-not much to do with Sam as everyone seems to think but they know they have a proven motivator-just not consistent with us.

This season is a double edged sword-the board cant afford to not get promotion, the fans won't allow it but also if we went up I really can't see us surviving a season (which you need to) to blend wholesale signings and superstars. The current squad; bar Green is not Prem standard. The prospect of Tomkins is and the form of Noble is currently. Otherwise we are fucked. Nolan is slowing before our eyes and in my opinion is a big a luxury as Diamante was considered. we then have average Prem experience in Taylor, Cole (pfffft) and Faye unless a cold winter sees him off! Then unproven at Prem level players like Baldrick and Bill Maynard. We do not have anything near a backbone and even less a squad capable of PL football. We also have £12trillion of defective driftwood in our squad to lose!!


You may think I am negative-I am not, just consistent-I feel this way before during and after every season since being an adult!!


And I don't remember much sexy football at West Ham-probably the last time we had that was PdC era. Even then we was completely inconsistent and unpredictable!!


It is never dull when a Hammer

Right about getting rid of Zolo. Should never have been manager in the first place.

Made a big mess of putting Grant in. Surely they must have done their homework?
The way they handle the replacement for him was a right 2 nad 8. Should have done a better job so the reason we went down is squarly on their shoulders.
Trouble is under Zolo we had a very bad squad which was not changed when we appointed Grant.
Sacking him at the end of season was too late.
Indeed it could still be argued that some of our squad are a waste of space and if we go up unless changes are made we will come straight back down.