A bit of background on Tony Carr. His tenure as a player at Barnet and West Ham was cut short due to injuries and he was subsequently given a coaching role with the academy. 43 years of service later, he has been instrumental for West Ham, finding gems such as Joe Cole, Glen Johnson, Rio Ferdinand, Mark Noble and even John Terry before he moved to Chelsea. He is arguably the most important person in West Ham’s history.
The term “Academy of Football” which is used to describe West Ham is because of his hard work. He was given a testimonial in 2010 and was awarded an MBE in the same year.
But in 2014, he was replaced with Terry Westley – who himself has come under fire for his treatment of certain players and favouritism towards his own son – and he became a club ambassador. This is not a dreadful thing to do in itself considering Westley, despite his flaws, has helped produce some superb young talent who are breaking into the first team now.
However, after a short time as club ambassador, Carr has been relieved of his duties. There wasn’t any announcement by the club, he was just slipped out the back door along with a huge number of workers from the Boleyn Ground who were made redundant following the stadium move. He wasn’t given the chance to say goodbye to the fans who adore him and are unbelievably grateful to him, instead they had to find out a month after the incident because of a leaked Daily Mail article.
This isn’t even the worst thing about his removal. His redundancy package was revealed to be a measly £14,000. To put this into perspective, David Sullivan boasted about offering Carlos Tevez £150,000 PER WEEK. As much of a cult hero Tevez is, he is not a true legend like Carr, and if it came down to it, probably doesn’t really give a toss about West Ham.
Carr has made West Ham millions in unearthing these gems of talent and he is repaid for his duties with a discreet exit and a minuscule redundancy package. This man has not only been a credit to West Ham, but his country as well. 7 out of the 23 man squad for England at the 2010 World Cup were Carr’s findings. And this is how he is treated? If that isn’t what you would consider a disgrace, I don’t know what is.
This scenario rings bells of the treatment of Bobby Moore by West Ham post-retirement, who was similarly refused an ambassadorial role, even at one point being kicked out of Upton Park for not having the right ticket, who then went on to have a series of bad business decisions before tragically dying young.
It is unclear whether this was an order from high up (Gold, Sullivan, Brady) or whether this was someone else. But no matter who it was, they should be royally ashamed with themselves.
