West Ham co-owner David Gold believes their Championship play-off final success against Blackpool has brought 'pride' back to the club.
Co-owner hails Big Sam after play-off success
West Ham co-owner David Gold believes their Championship play-off final success against Blackpool at Wembley has brought pride back to the club.
Striker Ricardo Vaz Te scored with three minutes remaining to take his team into the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Blackpool.
The victory now guarantees the East End club about £90million in revenue and, although Gold is aware of the financial benefits of promotion, he claims 'pride' is more important.
"You know, people talk about the money, but pride is so important," Gold told
Sky Sports 1 HD.
"Everybody here will be saying we're back in the Premier League and they've had a tough time.
"We've had previous owners who have caused problems for the football club and of course we got relegated, but it's pride.
"I keep coming back to talk about this being the richest game in football and of course it is, but what we miss out on sometimes is the impact it has on fans and it's vitally important that this great football club with great traditions is back in the Premier League."
Masterplan
And asked about the achievements of manager Sam Allardyce, who has had to deal with plenty of scrutiny from different quarters this season, he said: "I mean, it's him that's done it. It was him that failed to get us up automatically.
"I think this was the masterplan to not go up automatically and come here (to Wembley) and have this fantastic day. We couldn't have had this day without failing in a way.
"We brought Sam in because we wanted someone to bring pride back into the football club and he's done that."
