Very Specific Football Question No.41: Has David Sullivan ever thought about anything he has said prior to saying it?

It promised to be an exciting summer for West Ham fans as they sat back and awaited the arrival of a new striker.

Long gone were the days of re-signing Carlton Cole on a free transfer and relying on the miracle of Andy Carroll staying fit. This time the Hammers were going to splash the cash big time - and it was not just idle newspaper speculation but cast-iron fact, as announced by chairman David Sullivan himself.

“We need a 20-goal-a-season striker and that will cost us £25m or £30million. That is where the bulk of our money will go,” he stated earlier this year.

In May, before the season was out, Sullivan confirmed that the process of buying this prolific goalscorer was already under way.

“We put in a bid today for €30m (£23.7m) for a player and other bids will be going in. We are going to make a £20m or £25m bid for a player in England this week. So whatever happens, we’ll bring a top striker in,” Sullivan reiterated.

Hammers fans were already speculating about who this future east London hero could be - Jamie Vardy, Michy Batshuayi and even Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been mentioned - although not everyone at the Boleyn Ground was happy about it.

The club’s existing number one striker Diafra Sakho, for instance, had already thrown a wobbly prior to April’s Premier League match against Arsenal - firstly because he had been dropped for Carroll (fair enough) and secondly because he had been listening to his own chairman repeatedly declare his desire for a “top striker”. Not the biggest vote of confidence when you fancy yourself a decent Premier League forward yourself (with the goalscoring record to back it up).

But you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few egos, and if Sakho’s happiness was to be sacrificed for the greater good, then so be it. By the time the Senegalese forward had been sold and replaced with someone better, it wouldn’t matter anymore.

But as May became June and June became July, a flaw began to emerge in Sullivan’s plan. Namely that spending “£25m to £30m” on a “top striker” is not as easy as it sounds.

Because it actually does sound easy. If you’ve got a huge pile of cash and you play in the world’s most glamorous league, there are guaranteed to be strikers in inferior leagues, earning a fraction of what you could offer them, who would jump at the chance of joining your club, right?

Yes, but it’s also guaranteed that all top strikers have a variety of different clubs wanting to buy them.

And the catch for West Ham is that, although they may play in a top league and have a top new stadium, they are not actually a top club. At least not compared to Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool - and that’s just the English ones.

As such, West Ham’s No1 target Batshuayi went to Chelsea, their No2 target Alexandre Lacazette wants to join Arsenal (or anyone else in the Champions League), their No7 target Vincent Janssen went to Spurs, and so on.

It’s simple stuff really. The kind of situation most people with a basic understanding of football could have foreseen.

And then there’s Sullivan.

Let’s be clear that the former pornographer has run football clubs for a couple of decades now - and not without success - so it was certainly within his capabilities to foresee the club’s current predicament.

And maybe he would have done, if only he had given it a second’s thought. That, however, would have been breaking the habit of a lifetime.

Sullivan has turned speaking before thinking into an art form since the day he arrived at West Ham in 2010.

A few weeks into the job, he used the club’s official website - of all places - to label a display against Wolves “shambolic” and accuse manager Gianfranco Zola of fielding an “unbalanced and disorganised” team.

“I wouldn’t say, from a player’s point of view, that it helps,” commented club captain Matthew Upson at the time, with commendable understatement.

Zola was eventually sacked and replaced by Avram Grant, who got the Hammers relegated. Sullivan has put his hands up and admitted that one was a mistake, but it hasn’t prevented him making a few more verbal boo-boos along the way.

There was the time he suggested QPR striker Charlie Austin has “no ligaments in his knee”, said he regretted signing Andy Carroll and claimed that a Manchester United team coach attacked by Hammers fans had suffered “no damage” without actually seeing the coach.

And this week, there is some more back-tracking taking place.

“The problem is every striker you go for, there are 10 others clubs interested in him. I would say to people if we don’t bring anyone in it is not the end of the world as we were the fourth highest scorers in the Premier League last season,” is Sullivan’s most recent opinion on the matter.

And he possibly makes a fair point - but one that would sound a lot less ludicrous had he not already chosen to declare his desperation for signing the very player he now says the club may not need.

Sullivan added that West Ham will now refuse to sell Sakho, who has since submitted a transfer request and refused to attend the club’s pre-season tour, unless they find a replacement.

So in summary, he has succeeded in laying bare the club’s transfer failures, alienating his only fit striker and generally making the club look silly. Or at least, even more silly than it already looks when all major transfer developments are announced on Twitter by Sullivan’s teenage son.

And for what? Pure vainglory.

A man who made his fortune in sex shops is now at the forefront of one of Britain’s most booming industries, and he wants a little bit of that kudos for him, just him.

As such, he simply can’t resist the impulse to show off a bit and make himself the story - even if it’s at the expensive of his business interests, which would surely be better served if he conducted West Ham’s transfer negotiations in private rather than the via the medium of his massive gob.

West Ham may well land a “top striker” in the next month. They’re currently hoping and praying that Carlos Bacca, who will be 30 in September and costs £26m, will accept their offer of a four-year contract on wages approaching £100,000 a week. He’s just waiting to see if someone better comes in for him first.

If that happens, the Hammers may have to stick with what they’ve got, although unfortunately Sakho does not want to stay and Carroll is currently injured. Carlton Cole is available though.

Follow @darlingkevin on Twitter

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