The huge wage bill and heft transfer costs paid by West Ham now have to be balanced by player exits. The Hammers have been struggling to trim the squad both to bring in Lopetegui’s remaining ‘wanted’ players – in reality just Carlos Soler- but also to comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and Squad Cost Rules (SCR) which limit spending on wages, transfer payments and agents’ fees to 85% of the club’s total revenue.
The nearer the end of the transfer window, the more likely The Hammers are to say ‘yes’ to transfers to get some of their prime earners off the books. Buying clubs will know this and wait until near the end of the window to do their bidding.
Probably that is why we are seeing late interest start to come in for players. A new report just today links such a move by Nottingham Forest for Hammers’ Midfielder James Ward-Prowse.
A report on Twitter / x by footyinsider247 claims that Forest are ‘exploring an ambitious late move’. No surprise there, the player seems surplus to Lopetegui’s plans having not started either game in the Premier League. Anywhere near the price that West Ham paid would be music to the club’s ears: Ward Prowse was a Moyes favourite last summer, a £30 million signing and currently receiving nearly £6 million a year in salary.
From my earlier piece you’ll know it has become urgent to get some of the fringe players off the books as soon as possible to comply with regulations.
It is 100% certain, now, that even if West Ham find a way to offload Kurt Zouma then still more outgoings will need to be managed by the end of the window. So any interest in Ward-Prowse is likely to be taken very seriously.
Signed on a four year contract for £30M just over a year ago. Should be on the books at £22.5M
Might well take under that amount just to clear the wages out.
There is a wages regulation in addition to PSR, if I remember rightly wages are capped at 85% of revenue. I have no idea how close or not close we are to that. £6M in wages is an amount worth saving if you think a player isn’t going to get much game time regardless of the regulation.
I just reread the article and it’s there. Wages are capped at 85% of revenue.
The rumors are that it is wages that are going to give us a problem, if we have one. You can afford to lose some money on book value if you get rid of large amounts of wages. If you look at the 2025-6 proposals for PSR that might explain why we are spending so much this year as the new rules have a ‘squad cost’ limitation.
Ings is not going to make it easy for the club to pay him off given that since he joined us he has not earned a penny of his salary but when he refused to consider going back to Southampton he made it clear to the world that his only interest is money it’s no wonder any other club have not tried to sign him
Gratz mate, you got to six words before your first grammar error, so signs of improvement 🙂
pointless nitpicking. you got a grudge?
Having a problem understanding how WHU are simultaneously a ‘feeder club’ dor the so called ‘elite’ and at the same time a target for relegation potentials to pinch top players. Answers on a postcard please……..