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Sullivan: Hammers planned player fire sale
West Ham United would have been forced to sell £8 million worth of players in January, £16 million in the summer and £20 million if they were relegated had the club not fallen into new hands, co-owner David Sullivan told Soccernet.
On the day Portsmouth were due back in court for a Revenue winding up order, having already gone into administration, the true extent of the financial meltdown at Upton Park was disclosed by the club's new co-owner.
Sullivan told Soccernet: "The strategy for survival was in place in case there wasn't a takeover, and we were told that it meant that £8 million worth of players had to be sold in January, which would have meant a player like Scott Parker or Carlton Cole going, or maybe even both.
"Then in the summer, the club would have needed to sell £16 million worth of players to carry on surviving, having budgeted to finish 10th in the Premier League, but it might have been more like £20 million if they had been relegated.
"It would have reached the stage where the club would have had no one left of any consequence, but when people are desperate they had to design desperate measures.
"For West Ham it wouldn't have been long before they would have run out of players to sell. Yet Straumer had put in £7.9 million to keep the club afloat on top of all the debts."
When Sullivan and David Gold took over the running of the club in January there were debts of £110 million.
Sullivan said: "We have already trimmed that down to £95 million, as we have paid of some of the debts with a few little deals, so slowly we are making some progress.
"But we have to look at the situation in realistic terms. This club had lost £20 million, £40 million and £20 million in the last three years and there are another £20 million losses this year.
"Ultimately we have to break even, but that is going to take some effort as we are heading for £20 million losses this year again. So, you can see the first big task is to stabilise the club to give it a brighter future.
"We came in and bought players, saved the club from being forced to sell players, and now we are quite capable of staying up, and quite capable of surviving."
