CandH Exclusive by Hughie Southon
West Ham’s board has held its most crucial meeting of the summer with new investor Daniel Kretinsky present for the first time!
It was a getting to know you time as much anything else but we understand the Czech made a fine impression and may be ready to offer financial help in certain areas.
These could include cheaper loans for players through his companies than the club are able to access on the commercial market.
He views the Hammers very much as a business operation but is of course a huge football lover and like everybody else is desperate to see the club win something with the European Conference being viewed as a very serious option.
One big subject addressed during the meeting was players wages which we are told are rising rapidly with – ridiculous though it may sound given their size – the cost of living crisis stoking inflation.
Beyond that numerous players on the David Moyes list were discussed although as has become the case these are remaining secret.
There seems some obvious answers, go for players that are up and coming like Keane Lewis-Potter, Broja etc who will require less wages, we got a few big earners off the payroll already with Fredericks and Yarmo, who were both on over 100k per week plus we have all the others we have let go over the last two years including Haller so there must be plenty of wiggle roon, other clubs commercial teams secure them big sponsorship deals, our chairmen seem completely inept in that regard, Kretinsky probably has access to a much bigger pool of sponsors so start negotiating while we are still in European football, this may be our last season if we don’t invest in the squad at the right levels because Newcstle will be better this season than they were last and the other teams are investing in upgrades.
I suspect our squad will be even thinner come the start of the season than it was last year or we will be forced into panic buys because our chairmen lack ambition or the business nous to get deals over the line.