West Ham will no longer tie other than their best players down to long term deals.
Winston Reid’s departure from the club at the end of the season has been a reminder of the mistakes made in the past and the club is now involved in serious due diligence when deciding how long players will be offered.
We can confirm that currently talks are going on with such as Jarrod Bowen, Tomas Soucek with a new round due round of talks with Declan Rice’s advisers.
But the club will be very careful in negotiations with squad players this summer realising the errors of judgement that have been made in the past with such as Reid who got SIX years and more recently with Arthur Masuaku who received a four year deal with a two year option.
A Hammers source told Claret and Hugh: “We are involved in much more due diligence now than in the past when contracts such as those you have mentioned were handed out.
“Winston had been a great servant but his long term injury has shown that caution is required in the length of deals being offered.”
Only West Ham would give a 4 year contract (Masuaku) to a full back who doesn’t excel playing full back.
It’s got more to do with age for me than anything. Winston Reid was one of our top players at the time so no problem with giving him a long term deal except for the fact that he was 29 at the time so we was effectively tying the player up until the end of his playing career. If he’d been a few years younger it wouldn’t have been a problem. For me deals long term deals for players should only run up to the age of say 31 tops then at 31 they could negotiate a new 2 year deal but after the age of 33 they would only get 1 year deals max to be renegotiated annually.
Obviously that’s encouraging news, although hasn’t Antonio recently been given a contract extension which, given his record with injuries, not to mention his recent form could be seen as a possible mistake.
In fact I think there are a number of similarities between Reid being given an extension and the Antonio situation. At the time Reid, according to press reports, was attracting interest from a number of big clubs because he was playing well. I seem to remember at the time most fan forums welcomed the news of his long contract extension. Unfortunately soon after signing it he suffered a major injury and when he returned to action wasn’t the player we thought we had tied down long term.
Mr Boozehound, you make an interesting point.
Life is all about timing, Antonio is playing in a more value/expensive position and West Ham have very little in the way of alternative strikers ??
According to Sportrac. Antonio has earned £24mil. Transfermarkt suggests for 8 seasons, 209 appearances with 57 goals & 35 assists, and £8.5mil. transfer fee, all for £33mil. which given the alternatives looks like a pretty decent return compared to Andy Carroll, whose £28mil contract plus £17mil fee for 6 seasons, 142 games, 34 goals and 17 assists….
Just saying….
Antonio’s value compared to another striker linked to West Ham recently, Alexandre Lacazette (Who West Ham tried to buy in 2017) cost £45mil. plus £47mil contract for 147 appearances, 70 goals & 33 assists