News that the hapless Roberto is on his way back to the club after a La Liga loan looks set to land the Hammers with a near £1.5 million wage burden they could well do without this season.
Incredibly after his switch to Alaves was completed in January it meant that the nightmare keeper was completing his 12th loan move in 12 season.
It’s easy to understand why, given the manner in which he performed at the Hammers, that should we hit the Championship next season he will justifiably become the major villain.
It’s a £30k a week salary the club can do without and it’s not the only one as the club considers the consequences of handing Winston Reid a new six year, £80k a week – or near £4million – deal back in 2017.
Jack Wilshere may or may not come back to something like usable fitness and form but another £9.6 million has been spaffed on the former Gooner with PERHAPS another £4,8 million on the cards this season.
Albian Ajeti – another £30,000 a week misfit along with Jordan Hugill – sees another £1.5 million added to the dead wood wage bill and with the QPR loanee costing the same, the Irons face a bill of nearly £13.5 million for some high profile problems.
I went through the first team squad the other night and I think we can easily sell or allow leave 10 players this summer. The 10 players would be Roberto, Zaba, Fredericks, Masuaka, Sanchez, Wilshere, Ajeti, Yarmo, Reid, and Martin. That would bring in about 30m in transfer fees but would save a fortune in wages. There is a talk of selling a big player but for me cut the squad down and make the savings on salary, bring in a couple of good signings i.e. RB, LB and striker in addition to Soucek. If we have to see a top player for me it would not be Rice, Diop, Anderson, Antonio or Haller. I would perhaps consider selling Lanzini if we received an offer in the region of 20m.
Bit harsh Hugh, given the contracts were not the players fault…
(No mention of Carlos Sanchez £50k pw and I’m not ready to give up on young Adjeti yet)
Thankfully, it’s just £240k a week which is less than:
Paul Pogba : £290k = 5 app 0 goals, 3 assts
or
Alexis Sanchez – £375k = …errr nothing
All Premiership clubs have ‘deadwood’ contracts, I’m sure many would like to cancel a few misjudged agreements.
You could do a new list every couple of years and add another 3 or 4 players each time.
Comes of having no transfer strategy and changing managers every 18-24 months with no long term vision.
It’s always a quick fix and desperation buys.
It amazes me how many signings we make with no sell on value.
I would love to see a breakdown of what agents got what money for these deals. We heard ( alleged) at the time that allardyce was pushing our young players to use his agent, you wonder how often this kind of thing is happening at the higher end of the game, along the lines of give this player this contract and I’ll get the other player to sign for you etc..