Baroness Karren Brady has finally stepped down as vice-chair of West Ham United and the fans are delighted. Never mind blowing bubbles, they’re cracking open the bubbly.

Her role as deputy to diminutive porn baron David Sullivan over the past 16 years has seen this odd couple steer West Ham through relegation, promotion and, a couple of seasons ago, their first trophy since 1980 – and a European one at that.

Brady is not the first club director to face the wrath of fans that can turn particularly nasty

It also marked a period in which they left the Boleyn Ground for the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, swapping one of the most charismatic, atmospheric and, for away teams, most intimidating grounds in the country for a soulless bowl which has never been properly adapted for watching football.

But the club is failing. It is hovering just above the relegation zone – though one place above Spurs, which is about the only thing keeping the fans happy at the moment.

Supporters have never been comfortable with the ground move, the revolving door of managers – particularly the appointment of Graham Potter – the lack of decent signings and reports of serious financial losses.

The unhappy Hammers have been campaigning to rid the club of both Brady and Sullivan – fans refer to the duo as BS, as in their banners declaring ‘No More BS – This Pair Are Killing Our Club.’

The relationship between Brady and Sullivan is a strange one and surrounded by rumour and gossip. It goes back almost four decades when Brady, a 20-year-old ad account executive with LBC, had Sullivan’s Daily and Sunday Sport as a client.

Sullivan, 30 years her senior, was so taken by Brady’s, er, business acumen, he hired her. Three years later he bought Birmingham City and made her managing director. Brady is, if nothing else, fiercely ambitious. Having been rejected by Harlow Tech for its journalism course, she spurned university to go out and make a living. I did that course at Harlow and one of the highlights was being at Snaresbrook Crown Court to watch Sullivan get sent to prison for living off the immoral earnings of prostitutes.

He appealed and was freed after serving 71 days inside. By then I was a junior reporter on his local paper, the Ilford Recorder, and went to interview him as his garishly decorated mansion in Chigwell. I knocked on the door, introduced myself to a young blonde lady who answered the door. She suddenly became frightened and told me to ‘go, as quick as you can’ just as a couple of burly men came running down the stairs towards me. I naturally fled, which was a shame as I could have swapped notes with him about my aunt who ran a brothel in Ilford at the time.

Brady may well have been successful even without the help from Sullivan. She has the gift of self-promotion, portraying herself as a kind of businesswoman supreme.

This got her close to David Cameron when he was PM, accompanying him with the glitterati of British business to overseas trade trips, and as a right-hand woman for the past 16 years to Alan Sugar’s increasingly ridiculous Apprentice TV series.

She deserves credit for being a trailblazer in breaking through the stuffy male-dominated culture in football boardrooms and her role in championing women in business. She has had non-exec roles with Channel 4, Simon Cowell’s company Syco, Mothercare and Taveta Investments with Sir Philip Green – clearly she has a thing for dodgy old rich men.

But football is a different ball game, if you’ll excuse the pun, and Brady is not the first club director to face the wrath of fans that can turn particularly nasty. Earlier this season Daniel Levy stepped down as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur following years of protests – though the owners remain. Manchester United’s faithful never took to the Glazers as their owners.

Win a few trophies and it doesn’t matter if your directors are pornographers, dictators or just dodgy – look at Manchester City’s happy followers and Chelsea under Abramovich for instance.

The difference with West Ham is that their supporters feel the lack of success, the stadium move and now flirting with relegation has all but stripped the heart and soul out of the club. Deep down, I suspect Brady knew that it was the time to go.