There have been 10 summers of West Ham’s London Stadium tenancy and a number of winters of discontent. As the Hammers kick off their new season on Saturday, their Carabao Cup first-round fixture with Portsmouth serves as a stark reminder of reduced circumstances, further confirmation of last season’s relegation from the Premier League. The summer has been as bleak as any of those winters, a collision of factors deepening the gloom of relegation.
Certain clubs, including West Ham back in 2011-12 when promotion was achieved at first time of asking under Sam Allardyce, have used the Championship to take a beat, to refresh and replenish. Can this be the case at West Ham 2026? The Hammers are actually short-odds favourites for promotion but behind the scenes it has been a summer of turbulence, particularly in the boardroom, where a power struggle is being fought.
Portsmouth will bring 9,000 supporters on Saturday but will David Sullivan be present? This week it was revealed the London Stadium’s operators had recommended the former joint-chair, though continuing co-owner, stay away, because of the “potential for demonstrations and anti-social behaviour by some spectators”.
It is expected that Sullivan will turn up, despite a fans advisory board statement that his attendance would cause “offence and upset”. A suggestion is he wants to enjoy the coming season as a fan and is happy to bide his time before any consideration of selling his 38.8% stake. Considering his personal circumstances, his attendance would be a brazenly unpopular act. On 25 May, as relegation was confirmed despite a home win over Leeds, Sullivan was forced to depart early for his own safety.
Sullivan continues to deny the allegations of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour towards women over several decades made by the BBC’s Panorama documentary in early June, though he stepped down from his role on the eve of its broadcast “to avoid disruption to the club while he addresses the matter privately”. Even before those allegations became public, Sullivan was a lightning rod, lambasted for his stewardship of a club in vertiginous decline since winning the Europa Conference League in May 2023. The £100m fee received for Declan Rice that summer was frittered away. Fellow Prague hero Jarrod Bowen, the club captain, has pledged to stay on, tasked with leading the club back up.
Until his defenestration, Sullivan had acted as the club’s de facto director of football, often to the frustration of those in the football department. His chief ally, Karren Brady, stepped down in April as storm clouds gathered, severing a working relationship that dated as far back as 1990.
Among the club’s support, 50,000 season tickets have been sold for the attempt at re-entry. The overriding, most vocal desire among fans is for Sullivan to completely depart the scene. His announced departure had installed a modicum of optimism. Potential new sheriffs are circling but the picture is complicated, any future direction opaque as a result. As Sullivan stepped down, an expectation was that Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire owner of Royal Mail who has owned 27% of West Ham since 2021, would make his move. Instead, this week, he cut that share down to just under 25%, though this was part of a strategy.
Last weekend, the familiar face of Amanda Staveley entered the picture. In July 2024, she departed Newcastle, after her leading role in bringing in the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, but now Staveley wants back into the football business. Last September, she was linked with a takeover at Tottenham, and it is suggested she will use a similar source of funding to engineer her move for West Ham. Among Newcastle fans, their club listing this summer, Staveley’s energy is lamented. With her connections, some Hammers followers hope she could have a similar, galvanising effect.
The key is the 25% stake that belonged to the late David Gold, Sullivan’s former joint-chair. As Staveley loomed, Kretinsky appeared ready to take up his first refusal on purchasing that 25% from Vanessa Gold, David’s daughter and current co-chair. Adding that to his 27% stake would take him beyond 50.1%, leaving him liable for a formal takeover offer. Shifting 2%, to Czech ally, the entrepreneur Jakub Havrlant, leaves him short of that obligation. Buying the Gold stake cuts across Staveley’s ambitions. Sullvan’s shares still hold the balance of power. Staveley’s next move is keenly awaited.
While that plays out, what of football? The arrival of free agent, the former Brighton and Ajax defender, Joël Veltman, was the first addition of a summer where the sales of Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham and Crysencio Summerville to Al-Hilal fetched a collective £140m, commensurate to a year of Premier League TV money. Youth product Freddie Potts’s departure to Club Brugge for £10m disappointed some fans. Needs must if further players are to arrive. There is interest in Ireland’s World Cup playoff hero Troy Parrott, the striker at AZ Alkmaar, though attracting players to the Championship has its difficulties.
In the dugout remains Nuno Espírito Santo, who stayed on when his departure was expected. Nuno’s zen-like calm is required at a club where panic regularly sets in. The vacuum created by Sullivan’s situation, relegation and lack of transfer business heightens anxieties. A new season has arrived, with uninviting league fixtures against Burnley, Charlton, Watford and Wolves by 1 September. Karim Virani, previously a club employee who departed in 2020, more recently at Glasgow Rangers, has returned as interim chief executive. Attempts are being made to stitch West Ham into a semblance of unity.
This summer, the London Stadium played host to concerts from Take That and Metallica, and staged the Diamond League athletics meet in July where Josh Kerr broke the world mile record. Thursday saw a bid confirmed to stage the 2029 World Athletics Championships, following an impasse between the club and the stadium ownership. Further reminders West Ham’s home will never be fully their own, 10 years after departing the Boleyn Ground. Such were the terms Sullivan, Gold Sr and Brady agreed for a stadium that fans continue to resent, where Sullivan is unlikely to be made to feel welcome.
