Following a summer splurge last August with West Ham’s reported spend exceeding £140 million – depending on who you ask – the club still finds itself in need of a big rebuild. January signings were restricted to the loan of Evan Ferguson – whilst at the time ‘ghost’ offers of £57 million were placed for Jhon Duran with no possibility of the bid being accepted. Was the cash ever really there? It would appear not.
From a Profit and sustainability point of view, West Ham are pretty close to their spending limits.
Today reports abound of West Ham United’s loss and PSR situation being ‘serious’ with an £80m loss projected and that the club made be forced to sell one of its top players in the summer. Nothing new here. Maybe just the reality that player sales will be required to balance the books is hitting right between the eyes.
Way back in August you might recall the CandH article ‘Hammers Crown Jewels | Enjoy them while you can” in which we discussed the 2024 summer spend meant there was a need to sell either Mohammed Kudus or Lucas Paquetá to balance the books and pay for phase II of the rebuild.
Other clubs such as Wolves and Brighton have stayed well clear of the PSR boundary by player sales – even Aston Villa have made ‘infamous’ sales to keep their losses down. It is a fact of modern life that clubs have to generate more income from players sales and rely less on rich benefactor owners.
Another reason for a top quality Director of Football to handle the acquisitions – Dan Ashworth’s value to clubs in the past has been as much about making a profit from ‘buying low and selling high’ as much as adding to the success on the pitch.
New Reports today seizing on the Hammers’ likely £80 million losses meaning that Kudus or Paqueta may have to be sold are not stating anything new: The January 2025 window was accompanied by a commentary from within the club that players would have to be off loaded to pay for incoming signings.
Much now depends on the upcoming FA Enquiry as to whether West Ham do actually have a choice as to which player they sell – it may still be taken out of their hands. Remember also, on-loan Nayef Aguerd is still a likely source of £25 million plus, probably with a ‘book’ value now of £15 million – so should West Ham wish to capitalise on him, there is further profit to be factored into PSR.
Depressing? A little. The modern day reality of Premier League football regulation. When some clubs – mentioning no names – still seem able to buy hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of players with impunity, it does feel very much like one rule for the richest clubs, and one rule for all the others.
Clubs who consistently make good decisions have good leadership.
We will never, I repeat never, have that. We have David Sullivan. Its the root cause of all our problems. Everything and everyone else at the club is compromised without good leadership.
When is an article from this site not depressing …seems to have lost some journalistic balancing
Give it a few days and this pendulum will swing the other way when C&H decide it is time to push the “Cash rich West Ham” rhetoric again. The reality is that nobody on here (top source or otherwise) has the slightest idea how much West Ham will actually spend during the summer window. By the way, I thought we were one of the richest clubs, or are we just talking top 5 rich?
Martin – as you reported earlier 5 players contracts are due to expire at the end of the season and others have added a number of other suggestions who may be sold. These include some of our highest earners.
Have you done any calculations on.how much might be raised in transfer fees, plus the reduction in our wage bill which could then be used to invest in new players? This could be an alternative to having to sell one of our top players.
About right, John.
If you have a stable set up with a decent manager it’s not hard to buy low and sell higher. If you’re integrating players into a winning more than losing team then they are likely to shine,
but if you’re integrating them into a struggling team then the opposite is true.
You need constant good decisionmaking, you need to avoid buying older players, you need a manager who is player development minded, and you need good recruiters.
Some of our competitors are very good at it, we aren’t with the possible exceptions of if Irving, Guilherme and Kante come off. We tend to lose money on player sales with the exception of Rice. Moyes was not player development minded and was inclined to buy established older players while keeping a small squad. Lopetegui was just not up to managing a premier league team full stop.