whu-au forums

From KUMB.

Just got back, so a quick summary.

Nick Ignoe and Scott Duxbury in attendance.

S/Ts probably up 4-5% next season, although there was some vocal opposition to a rise.
Merchandise should be better next season, they;ve got rid of Eggerts Son-In-Law.
New home and away shirt sold through the club.
Ground, been offered the West Ham site but the main problem is with the gas cylinders. The Health and Saftey Executive have turned down a similar proposal by The Oval because of safety concerns on a sensitive development. It could be ten years before its all built.
New Training Ground site in the process of being bought, can't say where.........
It'll be state of the art, hopefully be able to reduce injuries and attract young foreign players.
Playing squad is too big so expect reductions down from 29 to 24 ish..
Nani is in basically in charge of creating a structured scouting network for first team and yoof. It's a strategic appointment to collate info and identify players.
Roehampton Uni are in looking at our physio/medical setup, they've worked with Chelsea and Addidas elite athletes. The aim will be with nani to create a technical team independent of managers/coaches, looking at Chelsea's 'best of breed' approach. They are esp. worried about return rate.
Will bring in players in the summer.
Sheff Utd/Kia have both launched claims that are contested, Sheff will be dealt with by the end of June. No date for Kia.
Incentives for top ten were slightly misquoted, they are massivley geared up for top 6... peanuts for top ten.
MLS friendly is commercially driven.
No Intertoto as pre-season seen as more important for players/Premiership season.
Camara & Solanos contracts up end of season.
No apporaches for Green.
Yossi tapped up.
Ashton has another 2 years.

They are a bit unhappy with league position and the entertainment value.
Curbs still has backing.
Think everything will improve if Curbishley can play the team he wants free of injuries.
Curbishley picks the players to be signed. Magnusson negotiated.
Business plan is all about hitting top 6 and Europe.

DO YOu mean that Yoissi WAS tapped up? Isn't there supposed to be some sort of punishment for doing that. I Think we should renew solano's contract, at least for 1 more year. He's earned it.

In terms of Cutting the Squad, I've heard Niell And Ljungburg might be on their way out.

But if they want to clear out some players how about

1. Boa Morte
2. Quashie
3. Davenport
4. Camara (Obviously leaving anyway)
5 Reid (I Can't see him breaking into the first team)

I Could see Spector and Cole leaving but i think we should hold onto them personally just because they've proven themselves useful with all the injuries this season.

"They are a bit unhappy with league position and the entertainment value. "

There you are beexie, you've got some supporters on the board

xloserfishx wrote:"They are a bit unhappy with league position and the entertainment value. "

There you are beexie, you've got some supporters on the board

Didn't I tell you my full name is Bjorn Fredrik Arne Beexnusson Jnr

Sounds like Curbs is staying by that report though, dunnit.
Might have to call up my Enforcer Posse back in East London to do the business. Noworrimeen guvnor?

Bit more from the fans forum.......


Around 25 people attended the forum it was headed by Nick Igoe and Scott Duxbury. Duxbury was not what I’d expected, I always had the impression that coming from a legal background, (under Maurice Watkins, Manchester United’s legal guy), that he would be something of a slimy git, but he did come across well, and it’s easy to see why he’s reached such a lofty position before he’s reached 40. Igoe is a typical financial man, deals strictly in numbers and doesn’t have anywhere near Duxbury’s charm. I was surprised at how candid they were, in particular with regard to the performances of certain players, the dialogue seemed genuine, though I’ve been around long enough to take things with a heavy dose of sort.

Season Tickets
The cost of a season ticket is expected to rise in line with the ‘cost of living’, by West Ham’s calculation this is between 4-5%. This was met with dismay, especially given the quality of the football we’ve seen this year. It was suggested that a freeze on season ticket prices would be a great PR exercise, though Igoe stressed that it would cost the club somewhere in the region of £600k to do so. He couldn’t see the argument that it wouldn’t actually ‘cost’ the club anything, seeing as it never had the money to lose, all he said was that if a freeze was applied it would have to be made up from somewhere. Duxbury said that the decision had not been formally announced and that given the strength of feeling our concerns would be raised with other board members.

New Stadium
The proposed site at West Ham is now in doubt, due to the close proximity of the gasometers. The situation arose when Surrey CCC wanted to build a new stand at the Oval and the H&S Executive refused permission on the grounds that development would create a risk. Surrey CCC have appealed to the Secretary of State, but if the appeal is rejected then the Parcelforce site is unlikely to happen in the short term. They did say that there were other options for the location of a new stadium, but did confirm that any new development will not be like Wigan and Bolton, in the middle of nowhere. There as also a mention of the Olympic Stadium and my personal impression was that this is not totally dead in the water. There is a feeling that the stadium will become something of a white elephant, in the same way the dome did, the costs of staging the games will soar and the pressure will be on to recoup some of that money. Should that happen, West Ham will be in a very strong negotiating position and we would be calling the shots as to what we want from the legacy.

New Training Ground
Land will be purchased within the next 2 weeks, (Rush Green, though they would not confirm this), and a new ‘State of the Art’ training complex, costing ’several millions’ will be built.

Merchandising
The mess that is our merchandising department was mentioned and the failure of this was laid at the door of Eggy’s son-in-law, who was appointed to run the operation. It was mention about the lack of high street presence the club has, in that merchandise is only available through the club shop. Duxbury said that he understands how inconvenient this is for some, but said it is the downside of the deal
that has been struck with Umbro, a deal which still has 2 years to run. Shirt sales have been ‘phenomenal’, in excess of 50,000 have been sold, a new home shirt will be produced in June, with the away shirt in July, a new kit every year is again of the Umbro deal.

Squad Rationalisation
The only pressure on is to reduce the quantity of the squad without compromising the quality, I took this to mean that all the dead wood will be removed in the summer. I asked Duxbury about his ‘no big name signings’ quote, saying that it sounded just like the old West Ham rather than a ‘New Beginning’. He confirmed that what he said was taken out of context and that we want to be in a position where we had 2 quality players for each position. He did say if a big name player did become available who the manger would like to sign then there would be nothing to stop us from doing so.

Director of Football
Nani’s brief is to head a co-ordinated scouting network throughout Europe. Amazingly this is something the club have never had and it will be down to Nani to unearth young talent and bring them to the
club.

Manager’s Position
There was support for Curbishley in the Boardroom, but the reservations among the fans present was obvious. The lack of entertainment, the failure to play youngsters, the tactics of the side were all questioned. Duxbury confirmed that both he and the board were ‘very unhappy’ with the manner in which we’ve fallen away and performances this season generally. Curbishley is under no illusions
as to what is expected of him, though it appears that the board are prepared to allow him to get all his players fit and playing before considering his future, though if things don’t go well on Saturday I
expect this to change. Next seasons expectations are a top 6 finish and a European place, if it’s not achieved it will be seen as failure. The lack of leadership on the field was mentioned, as was the failure of Curbishley to form any real rapport with the fans, Duxbury agreed with both points and said they were concerns that needed to be addressed.

Injuries
Reports that our training methods, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation are being investigated by SPARC were correct, it was something Duxbury instigated and supported by BG. The current medical
team were appointed by Curbishley, people who he had worked with previously and trusted, this will no longer be the case. The medical team will come under the wing of Nani, a separate entity, or ‘resource’, they will be appointed on the basis of their ability before anything else.

Sheffield United
This will be finally settled in June, there are no further avenues they can take. West Ham are confident the panel will rule against Sheffield United, their claim is misplaced and we have done nothing wrong. Duxbury feels that the motivation is simply money, that if they shout loudly enough we will come to an out of court agreement and pay them off just to be rid of the entire business. This is not going to happen West Ham will not back down in any way. The action being brought about by Joorachiban is a private action, Duxbury stated that there is ‘no substance’ to his claims that Eggy agreed to pay costs to secure the services of Tevez, as he was present at all meetings. He reiterated that the claims were ‘false’ and he was confident that West Ham would successfully defend any action.

Other Snippets
BG has no intention of selling up, the position of the Icelandic Banking Industry has no impact on his plans or personal wealth. Curbishley took the decision not to enter the Inter-Toto as he felt it would interfere with pre-season preparations. The game in Toronto was purely a commercial one, a way of expanding the ‘West Ham brand’. There are no real bonuses for finishing 10th, a position the boardØ
are not happy with. There will be no ground share with T*ttenham! Another forum may be arranged in the close season with the manager and some players in attendance, though Curbishley is reluctant! Defoe was advised by Brooking to sign a new contract with the club, saying that West Ham would not stand in the way of any player who wanted to leave. He ignored Sir Trev’s advice, sided with his agent
and the rest is history. As an aside Igoe said that after negotiations Defoe’s mum was seen outside the ground in the car hitting his agent! Duxbury confirmed that Benayoun was tapped up by Liverpool and refused to play for West Ham again until he got his move. Liverpool tried to tie in the deal with our signing of Bellamy which we were unhappy about.

The meeting wound up about 9:20 where we adjourned to the bar and Igoe got in the first round! He stayed to chat generally with supporters, without going into specifics. I didn’t think this exercise was a waste of time, discussions were open and frank and I’d like to think that the concerns that were raised will be acted on.

Westham5096 wrote:Good reading, just hope it wasnt ALL lip service.

Yeah they always talk the talk yet time and again we see same old West Ham promise much deliver little.