Picking up the Sunday papers there were many slants on the transfer market and, from our point of interest, the West Ham situation regarding bids for Wolves’ Max Kilman. What seems certain is that Hammers’ offer of £25 million was rejected along with Newcastle’s offer of a player plus cash worth roughly the same amount. Gonzo’s earlier post today suggests a £30 million bid will be on the table soon.
Recent opinions were that Wolves valued Kilman at £45 million: If they don’t need to sell, who can blame them?
West Ham would, I’m sure, have applied the same approach with Alvarez, Kudus and of course Paqueta having been the subject of recent speculation. The latter two both have £85 million release clauses, although Kudus not for another 12 months.
The response on fan forums, for starters, was pretty universal: ‘Demand £100 million for Kudus’ or ‘They can have Alvarez for £60 million’ were the comments—before Alvarez got injured last night. Similarly, The Gunners paid up and met our massive price tag slapped on DR41.
Quite clearly, if you want to buy but ‘they’ don’t need to sell, you pay the price or walk away.
According to The Sun today, our own valuation for Kilman at £35 million is at least some £10 million short of the £45 million sought by Wolves. I haven’t seen anything about a specific release clause mentioned anywhere (but don’t quote me on that). In which case, David Sullivan must be banking on the truth of one or two rumours that Wolves have to offload players to comply with FFP rules by the end of June. We will find out next week whether those rumours are just that—rumours.
Otherwise with a cool ten million, at least, between our valuation and Wolves’ asking price, this deal is likely heading nowhere unless another club leaps in nearer to £45 million. To us, reportedly, Kilman doesn’t seem worth even close to that figure. At anything like this price there are other options available. Maybe not homegrown—but is that worth ten million?
It will be interesting to see how far our own David Sullivan backs his new Head Coach in the transfer market, in view of Lopetegui’s falling out with his previous employers at Molineux over transfer budgets. We all think we know the answer to that one.
Whilst I was perusing The Sun today there was an amusing ‘stag do’ story regarding West Ham fans at the Euros, who were caught up in a hotel fire drill with Alan Shearer. Apparently, the Hammers kit-clad group were accompanied by the ‘stag’ with a gimp mask on, and shared selfies with the BBC pundit they encountered in their hotel.
The Ex-England No 9 couldn’t get away from the Hammers fans during a loud fire alarm and assembly outside, where he was met with none other than our Claret and Blue stags loudly cheering ‘Shearer, Shearer, Shearer’—difficult to chant in a gimp mask, I would think. I’m sure someone will enlighten me. Well done guys, send us the selfies—or actually, thinking about it—please don’t.
As an accountant and Wolves fan let me try to help with some maths here. First the purchases are irrelevant for a 30th June 2024 FFP test because the cost of a purchase is spread over the length of the contract. So even £40m of spend tomorrow would only be a £8m FFP charge for a year and the £8m would be spread probably across the whole year, so around £670k for the month of June. The only thing that will affect behaviour is a sale as the full profit will fall in the year when the sale is dated but if Wolves need to sell then they are taking an almighty risk leaving it this late. I don’t Gary O’Neil is bull****ter and there is no evidence coming out of Wolves to contradict what he has said: Wolves don’t need to sell anyone immediately, it is just a shame West Ham as a club keep repeating the rumour that they do because their insulting initial offer doesn’t make deals between our clubs in future any easier.
Max Kilman is not worth £45m but that would be a good deal for us. A £35m fee when we don’t need to sell would be dumb.
FFP is largely a profit test, cash and cash flow is a different matter.
Dated 14th June so nine days old. Title Birmingham World. Headline. Wolves preparing to ‘list on the market’ as FFP concerns loom large. Subheadline… Wolverhampton Wanderers’ owners are reportedly considering selling stakes in the club to avoid Financial Fair Play (FFP) troubles. Wolves have an ongoing FFP issue, it’s the basis of why Lopetegui left, no investment of a size he would like possible until it resolves.
Well said mate frustrating every other club seems to think we are still having a fire sale
mike, this dog**** website repeats ****ing everything a 1000 times! Do you have such **** ones at Wolves?
Rumours rumours rumours well i have just herd through the bull**** grapevine that unless west ham sign 6 more players at 35million plus lopetugui will resign before the season even begins, so when we do sign our free transfers and the widow t****y, we will be seeking a new manager again, so be prepared for for the return of moyesball.. Sullivan and his cronies definitely have no ambition if they did they would offer 40 million for kilman and get the deal done fullstop.
You still buy newspapers?
I believe that Wolves do need to sell somebody to comply with FFP, maybe not Kilman but somebody. Beyond that it’s normal for valuations to creep closer together with valuations not the only consideration. There’s add ons and payment terms there’s any number of considerations. It’s not a simple matter of valuations don’t meet.
Your well wrong we even bought two new players £20 million plus and to us wolves you want our captain mainstay of our defence. You want inflated fees for your players so do we cough up or jog on
You seem to think for some reason that it’s not possible to buy first then have to sell after. You’re well wrong to spell something correctly. It’s the balance at the end of the period that matters not the order of purchases and sales which is irrelevant. In fact buying first makes matters worse before they get better, you’ve spent over £40M you say, good that makes it more likely that you need to sell due to FFP.