West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady insists co-owner David Sullivan's pay-cuts claim was all a tactic to get their win over Birmingham City this week.

In her diary for The Sun, Karren wrote: "David Sullivan is a smart old bird. Today, he announces that next season there will be pay cuts of 25 per cent all round, thereby uniting our dressing room by setting himself up as a stool pigeon.

"It's a tactic he used successfully several times at St Andrew's and, sure enough, the screams are louder but a good deal less tuneful than Bow Bells."