Overseas Options Are Bad News for Irons

It feels like unpacking the suitcase after returning from holiday : An unwanted but necessary chore to dispose of all that unused ‘stuff ‘that you were so excited to include just a little while before:  So West Ham United’s 2023/4 team is now being taken apart, the unused, unwanted and unappreciated components gradually being packed up and prepared for listing on Football’s version of e-bay.

New Head Coach Lopetegui, having made his player assessments during pre-season, has now called in his own fresh recruitment choices – and what exciting choices they have been – and now starts to deal with the departures of those ‘fringe’ players we have written so much about in recent weeks, the ones who have been deemed surplus to requirements.

Labelled by me as one of the ‘High and Dry Hammers’, Maxwel Cornet has been nowhere near the first team squad whether injured or out of favour, and this summer, as Gonzo reported earlier, interest from Turkey in taking the winger overseas will probably only result in a loan deal:  How much of his wages West Ham would have to subsidise remains to be seen.

Defender Konstantinos Mavropanos has today been linked with a move back to his old club in Germany: GetFootballGermany are reporting today that ‘Mav’ could be required back at the team where he played 89 times across three seasons. However, Stuttgart have already spent nearly €50m on Ermedin Demirovic and so would probably look for a subsidised loan to take the Greek back to Germany.

Kurt Zouma has been looking for a move to Dubai: Largely because of his fitness but even with fully subsidised wages by The Irons that deal didn’t materialise.

The huge wealth of the Premier League compared with European counterparts and the high salaries some of our squad players are receiving is a financial nightmare for West Ham: In many cases even when the club offers to pay some or all of a players’ salary the deal is unattractive for overseas clubs who find their own players receiving much smaller pay: Who would want to take a Hammers cast-off  into their dressing room at three times the salary of their own current players?

This is the downside of paying high salaries to recruit ‘squad’ players: They are almost impossible to shift and can go on being a burden well after they have left the club. However, in Cornet’s case, the benefit of moving him on is obvious for the squad and also the finances- he’s still got nearly ten million due to him over three years so any dent West Ham can put in that, the better!