Brooking: The club would fold without these sales

Brooking did his best to field accusations that fans will be demanding their season ticket money back after the ignominy of losing so many of their first-team squad, but was forced to concede that the cost of relegation was far more severe than Brown and Aldridge had originally suggested.

'If we hadn't had 17,000 season ticket holders come back, which was fantastic this summer, we would have to have sold another player or two,' explained Brooking.

He added: 'Without the £17.5m (raised from the four transfers), we would run out of wages in about November. There's no club then, there's no one to support and no one to throw your wrath at. I knew the implications of relegation and this is the harsh reality.'

Brooking's assessment is frank, but the only problem is that it differs wildly from the explanations given by Aldridge and Brown in May.

Throw into the mix that season ticket renewals had to be completed by June 6 - before any players had been sold - any you begin to understand the claret-and-blue supporters' rancour.

A supporters' club spokesman said: 'The only way West Ham seem to be able to generate money is by selling our best players. We're in an everdecreasing circle. We've done this so many times - sold our players and pulled the money in - and we still end up disappearing up our own backsides. It's incredibly frustrating.

'I wouldn't be surprised in the least if we go into administration. It's an appalling thought but you wonder how West Ham have managed to stay out of receivership this long.

'I don't believe the club when they say no one else is leaving. Selling Joe Cole will not keep the wolves from the door. It would be stupidity of Olympic proportions if we sell all our talented players and I'm hoping there's enough intelligence left on the board to know that.'

However, with Manchester United ready to test the West Ham board's promise that no one else will have to go, they may be forced to change their tune yet again.

Brooking backed the opinions of the board and manager Glenn Roeder that any offer for striker Jermain Defoe would be unwelcome, saying: 'We've got to try to persuade Jermain, but the big factor for us is that we don't have to take a deal for him.'

With the offer of Champions League football at the biggest club in the country on the table, plus the fact that so many of the products of the Upton Park youth system have headed for pastures new, that persuading job may prove a bridge too far. The same must surely be true should anyone come knocking for goalkeeper David James and midfielder Michael Carrick.

Even if all at West Ham remain true to their word, Roeder's squad has been severely depleted by the summer clear-out and Brooking admitted it is not strong enough to ensure a swift return to the top flight.

Their best hope of bolstering the team will come from loan signings but Brooking said: 'The shop window closes at the end of August. Clubs in the Premiership want to see where they are then before letting anyone go on loan.

'The next three weeks we've got five games and we need to make a good start, but the squad is too thin. How quickly can we get those players in to bolster the squad? That's the key.'

While Brooking tried his best to allay fans' fears, Brown was last night attending the Cowes Week Ball. Entertainment included a table magician. West Ham might be needing the services of someone who can pull a rabbit out of a hat in the very near future.