Written by Katie Shergold @flump9
Dear Mrs Brady
I am writing this as a lifelong West Ham fan who considers herself a fairly rational and levelheaded person. However, I felt compelled to write my feelings down regarding some of your thoughtless and ill-judged comments that appear to keep happening and how I believe they are compounding the negativity surrounding West Ham United.
This is not going to be a personal attack on you, although I have very different opinions to you on 99% of things I have read, this is purely about West Ham United. You are undoubtedly an incredibly successful and intelligent woman and I ‘should’ feel that you are an inspiration to women like myself, however for such a successful business woman, can you not see how some of your actions impact on us loyal West Ham fans. You clearly have no love for West Ham and I do not expect you to, it is not something you just switch on. For true West Ham fans, it is something that they didn’t choose, it is something we are born into and although we may suffer many heartbreaks we would not have it any other way. It is not just a game and to us it certainly isn’t a business, it is a huge part of our lives that brings extreme happiness as well as extreme pain – we certainly do not need you causing more pain!
Whilst I appreciate you will not understand any of the above, I believe that an intelligent lady with vast PR experience would know how to behave in the media. Your actions seem to continuously shock me, do you honestly believe that being quoted as “wanting Tottenham to win the league” (just one day before we were playing them) is an acceptable thing to do whilst you’re CEO of our wonderful club? Tottenham are one of our biggest rivals, you must have known that would rile our fans up. It is obviously just a job to you, a business and there is no heart in anything you do regarding West Ham, but it is unfathomable that you could be that clueless, or is it a case of you simply don’t care?
Karren, I do not expect you to have any passion for West Ham, but I do expect you to have enough respect to stop making such embarrassing, idiotic and classless comments. You plainly view fans as customers, but surely in any business you should treat your customers with respect? You could not be more detached from the fans/customers if you tried. Sadly, I do not believe it is anything to do with you being clueless or stupid, but as I suggested previously, you just don’t care.
All you are doing is inciting more negativity and causing further embarrassment to our club and I can’t imagine Max Fitzgerald, Head of Media Relations is enjoying this negative PR (although I am sure he has become accustomed to it now). You are certainly more successful than me and would probably view me as just another annoying working class football fan, but I ask you to just please stop.
Yours sincerely,
Katie @flump9
Well said @flump9 but I don’t think she will ever be able to get it right. Look what happened at Birmingham….
well said young lady
Brilliant hope it hits home!
But Kate it is you that is falling into the whole stereotype type thing. I’m tired of hearing that “I didn’t pick West Ham they picked me” in my case and many others that is true ie born in Canning Town/Dad supported West Ham therefore I do etc” but let’s not dismiss fans that found West Ham. I know plenty of mates that have “only” supported West Ham for 7 years. Brady, and Sullivan for that matter, have been to every home match and most away matches for the past 7 years, please don’t say they don’t support or love West Ham. Of course they do.
Brilliant piece of writing, written by someone who understands, well done.
Spot on, I agree with every word. Would the CEO of Coke state that they want Pepsi to be the no.1 brand?
Couldn’t have said better @flump9, Braddy and the Davids need to go or shut up
Someone once said ‘You’ll never understand, if you’re not one of us’… this proves this point. Excellent words Katie… you have vocalised the feelings of many of us.
Will we see a reply?
Excellent,well done,if I only thought she would listen
Well said Katie flump9 excellent letter & respectfully written well done COYI ⚒⚒⚒
Thank you for all the nice comments! We will keep you updated on whether I get a reply.
Regarding the comment about stereotypes, it wasn’t to suggest that you can’t just fall in love with the club, it was making the point that I didn’t expect her to. It is purely a business for her and I understand that. However, surely you can’t honestly believe that Brady loves the club? I go to my job every day, it doesn’t mean I love it.
Well said Katie I am quite shocked even though she is an Edmonton girl to find her so willing to slap on the back a team and club which was even if indirectly, responsible, be it at best through incompetence, mis adventure or neglect in her phone records being hacked. Can’t say I would be so forgiving but maybe it has something to do with her personal ambitions which increasinfly have little to do with that of West Ham
Bobby I think you are being a little unfair, she is not by definition claiming that this club being in ‘your blood’ means others cannot be true supporters. She is however saying this IS by her actions the case for one particular person and all the evidence suggests that she is correct. There is not a shred to say that Karren has any affinity to the club whatsoever other than seeing it as a vehicle for her own success which in itself is fine if it suits both parties. But it is the unsupportive, thoughtless and disrespectful behaviour that Kate and others are rightly critical of. She is employed by our club and it is very ill judged to do, say, or write anything that is detrimental to that club and it’s fans it’s simply bad business. Indeed if we are truly customers to her then like Ryan Air, it’s about time we were treated as the most important asset if they truly want to make the business thrive rather than jerk from one controversy to another. It’s not after that they can hide behind cheap prices like the airline.