Tony Fernandes wants talks with West Ham owners
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Your support makes all the difference.Tony Fernandes has told West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold the ball is in their court regarding his bid to buy the club.
At the start of the month the Malaysian entrepreneur announced he had made an offer to purchase the Hammers, remarkably on the day Sam Allardyce was confirmed as the club's new manager.
That sparked a war of words between Fernandes and Gold/Sullivan, who initially claimed he had not made an offer only to then later suggest it was "a joke".
Sullivan then further attacked Fernandes, who had used his Twitter account to announce his bid, by suggesting the takeover move was simply "PR".
Hammers chairman Sullivan later added: "Tony Fernandes wanted to buy 51% of the club for two bob.
"He thinks somehow that we are desperate to have him involved or desperate for the small amount of money he offered for 51% of the club."
However Fernandes, the owner of airline AirAsia and Formula One marque Team Lotus, believes Sullivan and Gold were impetuous with their response as they failed to assess his bid in full.
"We put an offer in, it was a good offer, they didn't like it, and the ball is in their court," said Fernandes.
"But for the benefit of West Ham - and I don't want to keep talking about this - let the new manager go in and do his bit and have some stability there.
"But if Sullivan and Gold ever want to talk to us we are there.
"We think it was something worth looking at, and if they look at it in its entirety, and begin to see what we are doing at Lotus in the next weeks when we are announcing new sponsors and things, then I think we could have brought a lot of expertise to West Ham.
"But they didn't look at the offer in its complete entirety and think about it, about the value we could bring to the club."
Asked if he would be prepared to simply invest, Fernandes added: "I am open to anything.
"But if you are going to take part you have to have the ability to make a difference. It's now up to them to come back to me.
"It's a case of 'I'm willing to help, it's now up to you'."
Fernandes has also defended why he made the announcement of his offer on Twitter, adding: "They thought it was wrong.
"But we were transparent. There was nothing in the end to say don't put it on Twitter.
"I was constantly being asked by fans about whether I was putting in an offer."
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