It is difficult to see several West Ham United fringe players resurrecting their careers at London Stadium. Great salaries, long term deals and no prospect of playing in the first XI must create a difficult future. Whilst we as ‘outsiders’ can only wonder what it is like to earn £50k plus a week (double that in some cases) without ever getting onto the pitch open a Saturday, envy of the money and the lifestyle is not the point here.
I’m not for minute asking for sympathy for several Hammers’ squad members. They are in a privileged position thanks to years of training and a quality of skill that saw them as ‘desirable assets’ just a few years ago. Maxi Cornet is one such player, who must be in a difficult place just now.
Maxwel Cornet: A Fringe Player Now ‘high and dry’?
Superseded by a newer, younger, probably more skilful recruit in Cyrencio Summerville, Cornet’s time as even a substitute at London Stadium must be at an end. David Moyes fell out with him, it seems, after the long-running calf injury, treatment for which saw Cornet desert his club and leave the UK for months. Lopetegui took a look at him pre-season and then sanctioned the purchase of his replacement.
Like a beached boat sitting high and dry after the tide has long since departed, Cornet is sitting on a contract of £65,000 weekly, until June 30th, 2027. That’s an annual salary of £3,380,000 due for the next three years.
A fringe player who came to us with something of a reputation for pulling up injured at the smallest knock, if I remember Burnley fans’ comments at the time of his transfer, he will cost the club over ten million just to see out his contract.
He has been rendered virtually ‘unsellable’ in the Premier League thanks to his lack of match time: Having never made it into the shop window the best West Ham can hope is to find a Championship club willing to take him. Ironically I’ve found a few forums actually proposing taking him to Leeds United as an affordable replacement for Summerville!
However, herein lies the problem: Summerville was on £780,000 a year in his Leeds contract (Capology) or £15,000 a week. Cornet then faces leaving ‘by agreement’ and taking a massive £50,000 a week pay cut: Alternatively he would look to West Ham to make up some of this loss to ease his way out of the door. A Steidten masterclass is going to be needed just to ship out some of the fringe players who it could be said are worth less than zero.
Surely though, a player would want to restart their career? At just 27 years old Cornet has maybe five more years ahead of him to re-establish himself: A tough decision for a player and their agents / advisors to take. And an even tougher one for West Ham for whom this ‘high and dry’ unsellable player situation is repeated several times throughout the squad. Costly indeed.
Yet contract lengths are increasing making this type of issue potentially worse in future.
PSR is like a tidal wave sweeping through.
I’d like to think I would want to be playing all the time but the best part of £7m before tax for sitting on your butt is a hard one. I have moved jobs for less money only because I saw it as a chance for better things in the future let’s hope he (and a number of others) will see it that way.
He’s so invisible I never even think of him. Unfortunately when playing he lacks skill, never has a killer pass and also gives the ball away 50% of the time. Moving him on is a big problem.
I thought Benrahma had gone? 🙂
Deathblow, if u are just going to post abuse, vent and talk trash, kindly p*ss off and be a t*at somewhere else! Your insight into the transfers and the blind eye to the owners player presents are trivial and irrelevant considering the manager can do nothing about it. Maybe try understanding the situation and being relevant instead of acting like a 5 year old having a tantrum. Just an observation from reading your abusive and expletive laden posts over a couple of months!
Not really a story in Premier League terms is it? Considering how we minions have to balance our budgets, I think there is enough money in PL football for both players and clubs to sort this one out without either side suffering too much.