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ClaretandHugh has learned that West Ham’s wage bill is budgeted to rise to £67m per next season year based on the current squad when taking into account the inflation of renewing players contracts.
But the chances of adding a £300,000 per week marque player in the summer suggested by ill info
rmed media reports seem very remote and in reality any incoming player in the summer will need to traded off for someone in the squad on a similar wage package.
And with the club ready to keep it’s top players on board and upping deals for Dimi Payet to £125k a week and negotiating another contract with Cheik Kouyate a big name signing is even more unlikely.
Throw Manu Lanzini’s new contract into the equation and the reality of the loose transfer speculation talk becomes even more unrealistic.
We were told by our top source: “The first thing that’s said as the summer approaches as the summer comes close is ‘Spend the TV money’ but it simply doesn’t work like that. The reality is shown by your figures.”
The base annual Premier League FFP wage ceiling increases by another £4m this coming season from £62m this season to £66m for the Hammers in our first season in the Olympic Stadium.
Extra revenue from commercial and sponsorship deals may allow us to go slightly beyond the £66m wage cap.
Although a record £5 billion TV deal will be shared amongst the twenty Premier league clubs next season, clubs like West Ham will still be restricted by the wage cap in place.