Mark Noble could not have been more wrong about West Ham, the club and its fans deserve so much better

“This club ain’t run like a circus anymore, it’s run like a proper football club.”

Mark Noble’s now infamous words immediately after West Ham’s final game at Upton Park were intended to be the precursor to a glorious new era in east London.

Slaven Bilic had just overseen one of the most memorable seasons in the club’s history, had masterminded the perfect send-off to West Ham’s famous home of 112 years, and would see his side miss out on a top-four finish by just four points.

A new era in Stratford beckoned. Hammers fans will tell you now that they wish the stadium move had never happened but at the time, there was an element of excitement - admittedly some were equally as apprehensive - about what a new stadium might bring to a club that regularly felt like it was underachieving.

Karren Brady told fans it would be a “world-class stadium for a world-class team.” That further whet the whistle for those eager to see West Ham’s fortunes come out of hiding once and for all.

Nine years on, we are all still waiting for Noble’s words to ring true, still waiting for the world-class team and it’s impossible to imagine a world in which London Stadium is ever world-class.

That’s not to say the club’s fortunes haven’t dramatically improved in that time, because in the last five years in particular, they most definitely have. However, it’s still not what West Ham fans signed up for, especially after having words like ‘world-class’ and ‘proper football club’ thrown at them.

The events that have played out this week not only severely contradict what Noble had said, but further underline the anger and frustration West Ham fans have consistently aimed towards majority shareholder, David Sullivan, over the past decade.

We can sit here all day and debate the pros and cons of deciding against extending David Moyes’ time as manager. On one hand, he had delivered West Ham’s most successful period in a generation, ended a 43-year wait for silverware and established the team as regular European qualifiers. On the other, his squad mismanagement, pragmatic tactics and often dull approach to trying to win football matches arguably held the team back from enjoying further success.

It’s understandable why many from the outside looking in were dumbfounded at the decision to move him on, much the same as West Ham fans rightly felt like he had taken them as far as his abilities could. It was a decision that would have been the correct one either way.

Julen Lopetegui was the wrong appointment for West Ham

Replacing him with Julen Lopetegui is a far less contentious issue. Almost immediately the Spaniard felt like a square peg in a round hole. Results and performances in the first half of the season are evidence of that.

Recruitment in the summer was generally very good, Lopetegui just struggled to get what is perceived to be a squad of top-class talent to buy into his ideas.

As a result, his sacking has always been a case of when, not if.

Most clubs will go about a situation such as this one in a very swift and amicable manner. They will part ways with the existing manager and will then go about replacing him. There will of course be rumours and reports giving fans a running commentary of what may or may not happen during that process, but much of that will be done once the previous manager has left the building.

In West Ham’s case this week, we’ve got a manager taking training less than 24 hours after it became public knowledge that the club intended to sack him. We’ve got a leaked photo of Tim Stiedten, the technical director, having a meeting with Graham Potter on the same day West Ham were playing Leicester City last month.

There are cancelled team bonding dinners and postponed pre-match press conferences. Lopetegui was still turning up for work, two days after he learned of his fate, wondering whether it might finally be the day he was told to clear his desk.

How West Ham allowed this situation to be played out so publicly hasn’t only been a disgrace and an embarrassment but has been devoid of any class, empathy or consideration. It’s almost as if it’s been forgotten that Lopetegui is a human being like everybody else.

Circus animals are treated better than the way West Ham have treated the Spaniard this week.

But we’ve been here before.

It is almost 14 years to the day that it was leaked to the press that Avram Grant would be sacked and replaced by Martin O’Neill as West Ham sat at the bottom of the Premier League table.

O’Neill was understandably unimpressed with how that news was leaked to the press before an agreement had been reached and he quite rightly turned his back on the club, the job and a £3m bonus for keeping West Ham in the Premier League.

A red-faced Sullivan was forced to keep Grant in his position, who refused to resign despite knowing full well he had lost all trust of those employing him. West Ham were indeed relegated, with Grant finally being sacked merely hours after relegation was confirmed.

It is a surprise the same thing hasn’t happened this week, to be quite honest. Potter would have had every right to walk away, knowing full well what Sullivan is capable of. I know I would.

Even Moyes endured something similar towards the end of last season when it was made public knowledge that Ruben Amorim had flown over to meet Sullivan about being the Scot’s replacement in the summer. It was April and a final decision on Moyes’ future had yet to be officially announced.

West Ham fans deserve better

What we’ve witnessed this week isn’t unprecedented, especially at West Ham. Sullivan has previous, yet he hasn’t learned from his mistakes.

His time as owner of West Ham has been riddled with mistakes and the club and its fans deserve better.

If he’s not leaking things to the media to help gauge fan opinion, he’s alienating passionate and loyal fans by removing concession pricing on tickets.

If he’s not moving the club away from its spiritual home to a make-shift athletics stadium built upon scaffolding and cheap carpet, he’s offering managers new contracts and then pulling out of negotiations three weeks later just because the team lost a few games.

Sullivan is the least popular man in east London. The pressure on him subsided during Moyes’ tenure because the team was doing far better than anyone ever dreamed. Moyes’ success was a distraction to the club’s continuous problem.

But that’s all over now and the pressure is back on. Not because he has to get the next managerial appointment right, that should be a standard job for any football club owner.

The pressure is to sell the club. That’s all the fans want. Sell it to someone with far less interest in being the main man and who only wants to ensure the football club is as successful as possible.

That’s not too much to ask for the 16th richest football club in the world, is it?

Only then will Noble’s words ring true.

West Ham has not been run like a proper football club, it has been run like a circus.

And that won’t change until the ringmaster leaves town.