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David Sullivan plots Charlton
takeover if West Ham bid fails
18/11/09 A James Hursey exclusive
David Sullivan and the Gold brothers
are plotting to take over Charlton should they fail to negotiate an
attractive deal for West Ham.
Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold all
want to own another football club after selling Birmingham City to
Carson Yeung.
Both camps pocketed around £25million
from the £80m sale and are keen to stay in the game.
Sources close to the East End
businessmen have confirmed they are in “on-going negotiations” for
two clubs, with the cash-strapped Premier League Hammers their primary
target.
They have an emotional attachment to
the Upton Park club after growing up in the area.
But Sullivan and the Golds are
seriously worried about the club’s huge debts of around £100million.
Mirror Sport revealed on
October 5 that West Ham’s debts included £45m to several different
banks, £19m to Sheffield United over the Carlos Tevez affair, £15m
to other clubs for players - plus running losses of £20m this year.
That has prompted the Essex-based
tycoons to consider other options near to their homes and they like
Charlton Athletic, who are second in League One.
The Addicks
have been in decline since dropping out of the top-flight in 2007 but
Sullivan, 50, believes there is potential at The Valley.
A source said: “They are in
on-going negotiations with a couple of clubs. Sullivan would love to
get West Ham, but has a plan B.”
Yeovil Town v Charlton Athletic:
Addicks will fight for every ball
12:00pm Wednesday 18th
November 2009
By Steve Sowdon
CHARLTON Athletic will be heading to
Huish Park on Saturday looking to maintain their Coca-Cola League One
promotion hopes on track with a victory over Yeovil Town.
Naturally, Glovers boss Terry
Skiverton will have other ideas, but the match promises to be another
difficult test for Yeovil.
Charlton, currently sit second in the
League One table, and bounced back to form last weekend following
their shock FA Cup exit at non-league Northwich Victoria with a 5-1
mauling of promotion rivals MK Dons at The Valley.
Charlton boss Phil Parkinson said:
"It was an important match because we knew that if we hadn't got
a favourable result, we would have come out of the top two.
"It's also important we put
pressure on Leeds United.”
Charlton now trail Leeds, who have a
game in hand, by four points and will be hoping to keep tabs on the
leaders with a three-point haul at Yeovil this Saturday.
"Football is a very competitive
game," added Parkinson.
"People's jobs are on the line,
people pay a lot of money investing in clubs, so you have to put
yourself on the line to win a game of football, and I've never been
involved in a victory where I've come off the pitch and it's been
easy.
"People might look at the 5-1
scoreline against MK Dons and think it was a stroll in the park, but
it wasn't.
"Now we've got to go to Yeovil
next week and compete for every ball as we did against MK Dons. If we
do that, I think we'll have a good day."
Yeovil's match with Charlton Athletic
on Saturday kicks-off at 3pm on Saturday - don't miss it!
For more from Charlton Athletic -
checkout their official website which can be accessed via the link on
this page.
Bristol Rovers manager Paul Trollope
has yet to decide whether to try and keep hold of on-loan Charlton
Athletic striker Chris Dickson.
Dickson, 24, has scored four goals in
nine appearances for the Pirates since arriving on a three-month loan
deal in mid-September, but he has not hit the target in any of his
last three matches.
Trollope said: "He had a
frustrating game against Carlisle, but he's been working hard.
"We play in a way that we ask a
lot of our strikers in terms of work-rate and by his own admission, he
didn't do that to great effect on Saturday.
"He's on a three-month loan and
we're assessing it between now and the end of his loan spell and we'll
take it from there."
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