Fiasco at Upton Park reminds Mike Ashley he had better find a buyer quick

This could be a watershed week for Premier League football, as clubs start to deal with the consquences of global economic catastrophe. Leading the suffering is West Ham, £142 million in debt according to the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance 2008, and whose owner Bjogolfur Gudmundsson has lost his wallet in the meltdown. One Sunday paper claimed that West Ham were just a month away from administration if they fail to find a buyer.

Who knew things were quite so grim when on the last weekend of August, just before the transfer window closed on the Monday, Alan Curbishley walked out? He claimed it was because the club’s owners had gone against his wishes and sold George McCartney to Sunderland. At the time, it just looked like a shabby piece of business, with the club feebly claiming