Gold welcomes financial benefits of promotion

Co-owner David Gold admits West Ham would have been in big financial trouble had they failed to make an immediate return to the Barclays Premier League.

Gold reckons that Ricardo Vaz Te's goal three minutes from time to seal a 2-1 victory over Blackpool in the npower Championship play-off final at Wembley on Saturday has saved the debt-ridden club around £50million. However, Gold is still prepared for a summer of spending as he believes manager Sam Allardyce will need in the region of £20million investing in his squad to keep the Hammers up next season. "Had we not won, it would have meant the owners would have had to find more money. It is painful. If you own 150 oil wells then it is no problem, but if you own 150 Ann Summers shops..." said Gold. "It is hard to put it into financial terms because the first thing we would have done on Monday if we didn't win was say we need to cut our cloth accordingly. "We wouldn't have sat there deluding ourselves, we would have needed to find more money. It would have cost around another £30million."