West Ham are facing up to a dilemma involving three of their top players – Winston Reid, Ravel Morrison and Mo Diame.
The club are deeply conscious that all three are currently in the last year of their contracts and could leave for nothing next summer.
And whilst the pressure is on the club to sign top talent, they also needs to solve a situation which could see the club miss out on any profit for the trio should contract talks break down.
Reid was signed in 2010 for around £2 million from Danish outfit FC Midtjylland whilst Morrison arrived for £850,000 from Manchester United and Diame on a free from Wigan Athletic.
Talks with Reid – whose advisory team are reported to want around £75k a week personal terms for their client- will get underway over the next couple of weeks whilst as reported on ClaretandHugh last week, a Morrison meeting is being lined up within the next 10 days.
And should neither come to an agreement with the club they are set to be put up for sale with a £7 million price tag on Reid’s head and £5 million on Morrison’s.
Diame – who could link up in midfield with Sengalese team-mate Cheikhou Kouyate this season – still has the £3.5 million release clause in his current deal.
A source told ClaretandHugh: “Obviously we will be in talks with all three players and until their attitudes become clear it’s very difficult to say where we will go with it.
“But if we find that the players want to let their contracts run down we would have little option but to put them on the market.
“However, we are nowhere near that scenario at this stage – there is a lot of talking to be done.”