Defiant David Sullivan attends West Ham’s Carabao Cup victory over Portsmouth after claiming he was being ‘bullied’ into not watching it amid sexual misconduct allegations

David Sullivan emerged to take his seat, cloaked in a thick black bomber jacket. Hardly attire befitting the 28-degree sunshine blazing down on the London Stadium but, as Sullivan has made clear of late, he’s not too interested in reading the room.

The stadiums operators told West Ham they didn’t want him here because they were worried about fan unrest. The club’s own fan advisory board said his presence would cause ‘offence and upset’. 

Sullivan remains the club’s largest shareholder but resigned as co-chair in June amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he strongly denies, and no longer controls the day-to-day running of the club.

This is, after all, supposed to be the fresh start that West Ham need. It’s taken relegation to the Championship and boardroom scandal for them to get it but after years of rotten decline this was, at long last, meant to be it and a gentle stroll into the second round of the Carabao Cup under the afternoon sun should be the ideal way to begin.

Everyone should be talking about how Jarrod Bowen, the loyal captain who stuck with the club, scored one and set up another for Taty Castellanos and showed the kind of quality that will see them as one of the favourites to go back up regardless of how clumsily they played in the first half. Or of the impressive displays of youngsters Lewis Orford and especially Mohamadou Kante in a 3-1 win over Portsmouth.

And yet how can the club make a clean break when the man so many supporters hold responsible for their plight, and against whose ownership they have long protested, was so keen to ignore all that advice. 

West Ham came from behind to beat Portsmouth 3-1 in the Carabao Cup first round

Daily Mail Sport revealed on Friday that Sullivan felt he was being ‘bullied’ by ‘keyboard warriors’ into staying away. He was concerned about the lack of transfer activity, now that he’s no longer the man signing the cheques. 

The club have so far turned the loan signing of youngster Keiber Lamadrid permanent and snapped up Joel Veltman, who came on for his debut, on a free from Brighton despite selling Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville for a combined £150million. Why should anyone be able to tell him he can’t watch the club he supports?

Not one for reading the room.

Many behind the scenes at West Ham were shocked he planned to attend. Daily Mail Sport knew of one staff member who decided not to come due to the ‘circus’ of it all.

For Nuno Espirito Santo, at least, it was business as usual. ‘We are focused on what happens on the pitch,’ he said. ‘The noise that comes from outside cannot distract us at all. We are going to find a lot of noise. We focus on the game, do their job, and they did it well.’ 

The last time Sullivan was here, the final game of the season against Leeds when West Ham’s relegation to the Championship was confirmed, he did not stay until the end. Fans pelted him with abuse and he left before full-time.

He made it all the way this time. For all the worries that his attendance might turn the place toxic, he sat there unperturbed and unpestered. The first boos of the afternoon were not even in his direction but at a hydration break during the first half while the PA system played The Bouncer by Kicks Like a Mule. The burly bloke sat next to Sullivan throughout the game looked like he just might.

If anything, the fans acted as if he wasn’t even there. Daily Mail Sport was outside the directors’ entrance in September when thousands gathered outside to protest against Sullivan’s ownership. Even though his expected attendance had been well-publicised, none bothered this time. 

The only chant came on 63 minutes when, coasting at 3-1 up, the fans rose in unison to the chant of: ‘Stand up if you hate the board’. Sullivan, to be fair, is not even on it these days. He remains the leading shareholder, although former Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley would like to change that.

West Ham fans largely acted as though Sullivan was not there as they looked to make a fresh start after the club’s relegation

Sullivan, with Karren Brady in 1993, resigned as West Ham’s co-chair in June ahead of the airing of an investigation in which seven women accused Sullivan of predatory behaviour

The fans were too busy trying to make that fresh start. Before kick-off, a clock on the big screen displayed a ‘countdown to walkout’. It meant the players, of course, but this place has seen more than its fair share of exoduses in recent years.

Not this time. For the first round of the League Cup, the London Stadium was impressively full. Forever Blowing Bubbles echoed so loudly around the place that a West Ham-supporting member of the press pack turned and grinned: ‘Not bad for a Championship side’.

In fact, it was the travelling Portsmouth fans who took it upon themselves to make the first move. ‘You sold your soul for this s***hole,’ erupted from the away end after four minutes.

If there was going to be a moment when it turned foul, it was when Adrian Segecic long-range effort deflected off the perennially unfortunate Max Kilman to give Portsmouth a deserved lead.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, to their credit, didn’t need long to turn it around. Kante produced some marvellous skill down the left before crossing to an unmarked Castellanos for the equaliser before Bowen curled a beauty from outside the box to put West Ham in front.

Sullivan remained in his seat and clapped. He did so again after half-time when Castellanos nodded in Bowen’s cross and, once more, at full-time. As the whistle blew, he stood up, grabbed his jacket, and left the room. Regardless of the advice, you suspect he’ll be back.