Breathtaking release clause kills off West Ham’s transfer scheming

What used to be pretty rare is now commonplace. The idea of release clauses has become very 2020’s in order to convince players to join clubs, knowing that if one of the biggest clubs comes calling the player will be allowed to leave and follow his dreams. The club sticks a massive release clause in upon signing a player at double the fee they pay – so very much a ‘win-win’: Providing somebody triggers the release clause.

Similarly the ‘relegation clause’ has become a better way of attracting top talent and taking away the jeopardy of a side dragging new signings down with them if they fail.

In the case of Ipswich Town’s Omari Hutchinson, the clause is a relegation one allowing him to leave if the club got relegated from the Premier League so that he has an escape route from the Championship.

West Ham have been reported as having an interest in the young right-winger-turned-number 10,  but the knowledge that his clause is set at thirty five million pounds – bearing in mind he’s just 21 – is staggering. That is a breathtaking amount of money for an untested youngster and certainly one that will cause the Hammers to walk on by. Footballleagueworld.com put it quite succinctly:

“You wouldn’t be buying the finished product, you’d be buying someone with potential…and £35m for a player who’s probably not the finished article yet would be a big gamble”.

Almost like spending £25 million on a Brazilian teenager then. As far as West Ham are concerned, I suspect that is ‘once bitten, twice shy’ as far as handing over that kind of fee for ‘potential’ and will kill any talk of Hutchinson coming to London Stadium stone dead in the water.