“Discussions with Jonathan David’s entourage underway” | Sky Report

West Ham competing with the cream of European football:

Anyone who has been holding out serious expectations that Jonathan David would be rocking up at London Stadium in the summer on a ‘free’ transfer needs to realise that ‘free’ doesn’t mean ‘free’. It just means ‘pay the player a signing on fee not his club’.

The Hammers have been trying to compete with the cream of European football as reportedly just about every champions league side has been chasing David, who is indeed a top level goalscorer running down the last couple of months of his Lille contract.

Reported by Sky Sports Switzerland, David’s money demands have been published and it makes tough reading for West Ham:

“Thanks to a document that Sky Sport obtained exclusively, echoing discussions between his entourage and Premier League leaders, Jonathan David demands a salary of nine million euros gross per season, to which is added a signing bonus of fifteen million euros, not counting the commission fees of around ten million euros.”

Which sets the level required to sign the Canadian at the “modest sum of thirty-four million euros” Which in itself would be do-able, even for West Ham, in view of the Mohammed Kudus rumoured sale in the summer.

The real problems are  twofold: the wage demand by Jonathan David, that would make him the highest earner at the club, above Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá who currently receive €7.8m a year. So that extra 100k a month is likely to be the deal-breaker for West Ham unless they can find a creative solution.

Secondly of course it is doubtful that, competing with the likes of Barcelona, PSG, Juventus, Inter Milan, Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle, that little ol’ West Ham can attract David to London Stadium in any case, with no European football on offer.

The Sky report suggests that Seria A clubs are better placed to offer the kind of wages that David expects and that, despite his stated desire to head to Barcelona, “Juventus Turin has already started discussions with Jonathan David’s entourage”

Don’t hold your breath.