French financial chaos may start Hammers player hunt

French clubs could be the most obvious target for bargain players this winter and summer following the collapse of huge TV deal.

With French clubs sinking into a financial abyss as a result there could be  some cracking players on the market at rock bottom prices.

It seems inevitable a fire sale twill be underway this January, cue inevitable speculation of a return of Dimitri Payet to West Ham, but it’s certainly an area for us to look at seriously when window speculation on French players appears.

Chinese owned broadcaster Mediapro agreed to pay Ligue 1 clubs €3.25bn over four seasons but failed to maintain payments for within four months.

Success-starved French clubs hoped they would be revitalised by a TV rights deal worth more than €1.15bn per year (€814m a year from Mediapro and €330m from BeIN Sports).

It was the second-largest TV deal in Europe, but the hopes rapidly died pushing French football to the brink of financial ruin.

There had been concerns about Mediapro from the start. When the rights were sold in 2018, critics pointed out that a similar deal with Serie A had fallen through because the Spanish broadcaster had not offered adequate financial guarantees.