When the West Ham United directors take the lift to the fourth floor of the White Hart Lane west stand ahead of Sunday’s derby against Tottenham Hotspur the atmosphere will be as tense as among the rival sets of fans on the Seven Sisters Road.
The club’s co-chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold, along with vice-chair Karren Brady, all plan to enter the Spurs directors’ lounge but there are likely to be few pre-match pleasantries.
The derbies between West Ham and Tottenham have been among the fiercest in British football for decades, but the relationship between the club’s directors has cooled to freezing point since the two clubs went head-to-head over the Olympic Stadium, which the Hammers move into next season.
Levy is a notoriously tough businessman
Brady can count on one friendly welcome to N17 in the form of her Apprentice co-star Lord Alan Sugar, but not from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy with whom she has locked horns on numerous occasions over recent years. The 46-year-old, who was born close to White Hart Lane in Edmonton, is said to have branded Levy’s attempts to find a temporary home while White Hart Lane is rebuilt as “classless” after the prospect of a one-season ground share of the Olympic Stadium once again popped up in the public domain.
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It was Brady’s mobile phone bills and bank statements that were accessed by a private investigator and resulted in three men, one of whom worked for a company hired by Tottenham, being fined for spying on West Ham’s bid for tenancy of the Olympic Stadium. Spurs repeatedly insisted they knew nothing of Howard Hill’s illegal behaviour.
Since the allegations of dirty tricks and the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to the Hammers, it has been clear that the directors of West Ham and Tottenham would prefer not to share anything, whether it be a ground, a transfer negotiation or a directors’ lounge.
Brady even 'Spurs-proofed’ West Ham’s contract with the buyers of Upton Park to prevent it falling into the hands of their rivals.
Spurs and West Ham locked horns over the Olympic stadium
The property developer Galliard Group agreed to buy Upton Park once West Ham make the move to the Olympic Stadium next year and a clause in the contract states that the Hammers do not have to leave their old ground in a fit state for football.
With West Ham planning to gut the stadium ahead of their exit, the deal rules out Tottenham trying to rent Upton Park off Galliard while they wait for White Hart Lane to be redeveloped, having already failed in an initial bid to buy West Ham’s stadium to use for a season.
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Brady also confirmed that she put a covenant on Upton Park, which prevents any other club using it as their home ground or playing matches there without West Ham’s permission and protects the “Iron Legacy.”
Speaking publically over suggestions West Ham could ground share with Tottenham in the Olympic Stadium for one season, Brady last year said: “No-one has asked us for our permission and if they did we would probably say no, depending on who it is - if you get my drift.” Levy got her drift all right, so much so that he applied the same 'anyone but them’ philosophy to West Ham’s bid to take striker Emmanuel Adebayor on loan in the January transfer window.
Adebayor was another point of friction
Having been frozen out by Spurs head coach Mauricio Pochettino, Adebayor decided that, of the three clubs interested, that he wanted to join West Ham on loan until the end of last season.
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But while Levy was prepared to subsidise a large chunk of Adebayor’s £100,000-a-week wages to move him to Queens Park Rangers or Crystal Palace, he would not agree to West Ham’s proposed deal of paying half of the Togo international’s salary.
Levy would simply not pay any part of Adebayor’s wages for him to play in the claret and blue of the Hammers, even though it cost Tottenham over £1million for the former Arsenal man to make just two more appearances for the club before they also had to pay up the remaining year of his contract in September.
Sorry for keeping you up late but at the last moment the main deal collapsed and the rest folded like a pack of cards. Stay strong. dg
— David Gold (@davidgold) February 2, 2015
however no matter how hard you tried there are people out their that you just can't do business with. dg
— David Gold (@davidgold) February 3, 2015
Clearly frustrated by Levy’s refusal to deal with West Ham over Adebayor, Gold posted a series of messages on Twitter that read: “Sorry for keeping you up late, but at the last moment the main deal collapsed and the rest folded like a pack of cards. No matter how hard you try, there are people out there that you just can’t do business with.” It was no surprise when Tottenham’s interest in midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate towards the end of this summer’s transfer window was quickly rebuffed by West Ham.
Neck and neck in the Premier League table, onlookers will be keeping a close eye on who takes the points victory in the White Hart Lane directors’ lounge – as well as on the pitch.
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