David Sullivan and David Gold reflect on a successful West Ham United 2014/15 Player Awards
Hello everyone,
We must start by thanking every sponsor, partner and supporter who attended a very successful seventh annual West Ham United Player Awards.
We would like to offer our gratitude to our principal partner Betway for sponsoring the Player Awards and we would also like to say a personal thanks to each and every one of you who attended for coming along and supporting the Club. Your generosity helped us to raise a fantastic amount of money, which will help us to fund the £4m a year it costs us to maintain and improve our world-famous Academy.
It has been another good year for our home-grown players, with the likes of Reece Burke, Reece Oxford, Josh Cullen and Manny Onariase all involved in the first-team squads this season.
The two Reeces were recognised with awards on the night and we would like to offer our congratulations to them and all of the winners – particularly our deserving Hammer of the Year Aaron Cresswell.
Aaron has been outstanding all year, playing every single minute of the Barclays Premier League season so far – there were a number of outstanding candidates, so it was a great achievement for him to win your acclaim!
We would also like to pay tribute to Martin Peters MBE, who made a wonderful speech after being presented with the Club’s third Lifetime Achievement Award. Martin is a charming man and, as we all know, enjoyed a truly magnificent career with West Ham and England.
We must start by thanking every sponsor, partner and supporter who attended a very successful seventh annual West Ham United Player Awards.
We would like to offer our gratitude to our principal partner Betway for sponsoring the Player Awards and we would also like to say a personal thanks to each and every one of you who attended for coming along and supporting the Club. Your generosity helped us to raise a fantastic amount of money, which will help us to fund the £4m a year it costs us to maintain and improve our world-famous Academy.
It has been another good year for our home-grown players, with the likes of Reece Burke, Reece Oxford, Josh Cullen and Manny Onariase all involved in the first-team squads this season.
The two Reeces were recognised with awards on the night and we would like to offer our congratulations to them and all of the winners – particularly our deserving Hammer of the Year Aaron Cresswell.
Aaron has been outstanding all year, playing every single minute of the Barclays Premier League season so far – there were a number of outstanding candidates, so it was a great achievement for him to win your acclaim!
We would also like to pay tribute to Martin Peters MBE, who made a wonderful speech after being presented with the Club’s third Lifetime Achievement Award. Martin is a charming man and, as we all know, enjoyed a truly magnificent career with West Ham and England.
We spent an enjoyable evening reflecting on another action-packed season for West Ham United. It is a campaign that has delivered some fantastic results, not least the victories against Manchester City and Liverpool and running the top six close in every encounter.
We have seen several new faces come in and make their mark on our great Club and it was good to see the likes of Aaron, Top Goalscorer Diafra Sakho and Individual Performance of the Year winner Cheikhou Kouyate feature prominently on Wednesday.
We will be making further significant funds available for squad strengthening this summer as we continue to assemble a team fit for our stunning new surroundings in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016.
But before then we have three matches left to play and will be looking for a strong finish, with the carrot of finishing with a positive top-flight goal difference for the first time since 1985/86.
Of course, we will say an emotional farewell to our home of more than a century. It is hard to imagine that this time next year we will be approaching our final game in Upton Park. For our part, we plan to use the opportunity, when people around the world will be watching, to celebrate everything that is great about this Club, its history, its fans and its future.
It is hard to believe that 19 January marked five years since we returned to our beloved West Ham. We inherited a Club that was riddled with debt and struggling to survive. So while the progress is there for all to see, we know there is still much to be done.
Come on you Irons!
David Sullivan and David Gold
Joint-Chairmen
We have seen several new faces come in and make their mark on our great Club and it was good to see the likes of Aaron, Top Goalscorer Diafra Sakho and Individual Performance of the Year winner Cheikhou Kouyate feature prominently on Wednesday.
We will be making further significant funds available for squad strengthening this summer as we continue to assemble a team fit for our stunning new surroundings in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016.
But before then we have three matches left to play and will be looking for a strong finish, with the carrot of finishing with a positive top-flight goal difference for the first time since 1985/86.
Of course, we will say an emotional farewell to our home of more than a century. It is hard to imagine that this time next year we will be approaching our final game in Upton Park. For our part, we plan to use the opportunity, when people around the world will be watching, to celebrate everything that is great about this Club, its history, its fans and its future.
It is hard to believe that 19 January marked five years since we returned to our beloved West Ham. We inherited a Club that was riddled with debt and struggling to survive. So while the progress is there for all to see, we know there is still much to be done.
Come on you Irons!
David Sullivan and David Gold
Joint-Chairmen