A prominent Crystal Palace man has piled the pressure on David Sullivan and Karren Brady with a brilliant message about West Ham ahead of supporter protests.
West Ham play Crystal Palace at the London Stadium this weekend in what has become a must-win game for Graham Potter.
The Hammers boss is one of the most hyped English coaches but he has struggled since taking over from Julen Lopetegui.
Many felt Potter could not do any worse than the Spaniard. Somehow, though, he has managed it.
Meanwhile rival clubs such as Crystal Palace are putting West Ham to shame.
Oliver Glasner has made the Eagles an efficient, organised and dangerous side despite losing a host of key players.
Crystal Palace won the FA Cup and Community Shield and embark on their first ever European campaign this week ahead of facing West Ham.
Palace’s rise puts Hammers to shame ahead of must-win game
Few would have seen or predicted the juxtaposition between the two clubs when it was West Ham enjoying European glory just two years ago amidst three consecutive seasons of football on the continent.
The Hammers face a Palace side on a record 10-game unbeaten run.
So Potter has his work cut out to get the win many feel is crucial if he is to keep his job.
West Ham have endured 19 months of rapid decline, a hugely underwhelming summer window and a terrible start to the new Premier League season.
But if it has achieved one thing, it has united a fanbase that has been divided for many years.
On almost any subject since the move to the London Stadium, Hammers fans have been split.
Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images
Whether it was the stadium move itself, David Moyes, Tim Steidten, the club’s recruitment, the arrival of Daniel Kretinsky or activism against David Sullivan and Karren Brady.
Protests and pitch invasions in 2018 saw the club finally invest the kind of money into the team which was promised on leaving Upton Park alongside the ambitious – albeit ultimately doomed – appointment of Manuel Pellegrini.
In 2019/2020 protests reignited but were effectively halted by the pandemic.
And when football resumed with no fans allowed in attendance, West Ham enjoyed a meteoric rise under David Moyes and the appetite to campaign subsided among the majority.
Fed up Hammers fans will be protesting again this week, though.
West Ham’s Fan Advisory Board issued a vote of no confidence in the club’s board just over two weeks ago.
Top Palace man piles pressure on Sullivan and Brady with post
That resulted in the Hammers calling a meeting and sending vice-chair Brady to face supporters last week.
Actions from that meeting will be outlined if and when minutes are agreed and signed off this week.
Big change could be on the horizon as supporters push for Sullivan and Brady to depart or step back from the day-to-day running of West Ham.
The move to the former Olympic Stadium sits at the very core of the grievances supporters have with the owners.
West Ham fans were promised a state-of-the-art retractable seating solution at their rented Stratford athletics bowl.
That never materialised and huge chasms between the stands and the pitch, as well as the upper and lower tiers themselves, mean the London Stadium can become a dismal, cavernous place to play football – especially when the entire stadium empties with 30 minutes still to play against your fiercest rivals.
Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Which is exactly what happened last time out as West Ham were easily beaten 3-0 by Spurs.
Hammers fans blame the owners for the club’s mess but Potter is not escaping fan ire.
Most supporters are agreed Potter is a symptom rather than a cause of West Ham’s ills but feel he should be doing much better than six wins in 24 matches.
Fan group Hammers United are planning a protest ahead of the visit of Crystal Palace under the catchline ‘No More BS’ deliberately using Brady and Sullivan’s initials to make their point clear.
The group want fans to join the protest to show the strength of feeling in numbers.
Hammers United hope the new low West Ham have hit this year will see more supporters join their cause.
But the penny is not just dropping for Hammers fans.
A Crystal Palace super fan has even piled pressure on Sullivan and Brady with a brilliant West Ham message on social media.
Dan Cook is the Crystal Palace fan and expert who runs the hugely popular HLTCO account on X and HLTCO Patreon site.
Cook, a regular on The Overlap’s Fan Debate shows, has over 200,000 followers on X and his content is not limited solely to Palace matters.
Ahead of facing West Ham, Cook has posted a must-read message that has resonated with Hammers supporters massively.
West Ham fans feel it perfectly sums up their frustrations with the club’s ownership with many saying he ‘gets it’ more than some of their own supporters.
And it only adds to the mounting groundswell of opinion siding with West Ham supporters against the ownership and how the club is being run.
“West Ham feels like a club in genuine crisis to me,” Cook said in his post.
“To many on the outside, they see Premier League football, a big stadium and a recent European trophy and think it’s all just whinging but so many of their fans feel totally disconnected with their club.
“Long-term season ticket holders are giving up their seats year on year, they despise the ownership, hate the stadium they play in, have had to fight tooth and nail to keep things like concession prices in place and worst of all, can’t see a logical way out of the mess they find themselves in.
“It’s a club which many of their fans feel is willingly forging a path away from the core support which has stuck with them for generations.
“Yes, the headlines are regularly dominated by the team’s struggles under Graham Potter in the here and now but the sense of frustration the vast majority of that fan-base feel runs so much deeper than the nine months he’s been in charge.”
West Ham feels like a club in genuine crisis to me. To many on the outside, they see Premier League football, a big stadium and a recent European trophy and think it’s all just whinging but so many of their fans feel totally disconnected with their club.
Long-term season ticket…
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) September 14, 2025
View Tweet
Cook has been unanimously applauded by West Ham fans on social media for his insightful take.
It is rare to see a fan of another club so in-tune with the situation – and feelings of supporters – at a rival team.
This will make uncomfortable reading for Sullivan and Brady ahead of the protest.
Because if a Crystal Palace fan can see the problems and gets it, the question has to be asked; why can’t West Ham’s owners?