News

Onana/Rice decision explained

|

See the source image

Exclusive by Hughie Southon

David Moyes decided to pull out of the Amadou Onana deal despite seeing him as a possible eventual successor to  Declan Rice.

The Hammers have made themselves open to offers for the Hammers captain under an agreement with his  representatives that they will LISTEN to offers next summer.

And in the meantime they are already looking for a replacement for the inspirational Declan who has been such a driving force behind the team.

However, a London Stadium source explained that at a fee of around €40 million, plus wages of over £1ook a week for a 20 year old with just 11 appearances behind him in the French league, Moyes and the board decided that players for NOW were needed more urgently than Onana at this stage.

That’s not to say that should he remain at Lille and show himself to the expected performance levels  this campaign they won’t go back for him assuming that he isn’t sold in the meantime.

Share this article

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

19 comments

  • SydneyC says:

    Onana would be the 3rd best CM on the team. If you sign him and he plays well, he’s off again next year anyway.
    However, i don’t believe for a moment the dressing room would have welcomed in an unproven 20 yr old on one of the highest pay packets in the club, it would have been an issue from the start. Best move on.
    Because they’ve been talking to loads of other CM’s, right?
    Oh and do I really believe Dec’s dad would publicly out himself in a spat on a fan forum, so it can get re-splashed across social media? No I do not. Stop feeding the trolls Hugh.

  • seanrice says:

    As usual completely wrong again.
    Absolutely no Agreement between Declan Rice
    And WHU for him to stay another season.

    • If you are for real it’s a shame you don’t answer calls aimed at getting an explanation as attempted on several occasion so excuse us treating this with some indifference.

      • seanrice says:

        Yes I am for real I’m Declan’s Father and Representative.
        You’ve never tried calling me and I wouldn’t give out my number to you regardless.
        The majority of what you write / report about Dec is utter rubbish , completely untrue , it just makes us laugh every now and then which is the only reason we read your rubbish.
        Suggest you stop being the owners mouth peice and
        Do some proper journalist research in future before you write anything about Declan in the future.

        • I rang u on four occasions following The Telegraph story some time ago, left a message and you chose not to reply. I do not lie and report what I hear from various places and should you choose to believe that one of those is the owner that is your privilege. Your number was passed to me by a member of the media in which I have been involved for over 50 years. I will of course report, should you wish, that he could be leaving given that this is what you appear to be suggesting via the forum. Thank you for putting the position clearly and offering the story that he could be going. My very best to you In;ess I was given the incorrect number 702 MAY ring a bell

  • hoolio says:

    I agree with the board and Moyes’ position:
    The player shows promise and may well have been worth the €40 million but not the £100k/week. Certainly not considering he’s only 20 with a handful of games under his belt and frankly if we want any chance of keeping Rice and Bowen long term we don’t need players with “promise” (especially those with unjustified wage demands) we need players who can deliver, NOW!
    If he does end up at Everton he might even be seen as the financial straw that caused the Toffees donkey to buckeroo sending them straight into the championship. Surely they need “now” players too (for different reasons)

  • geefunkhammer says:

    I completely agree with not paying such high wages for someone who is largely unproven and v young, but it’s a slightly twisted logic. Yeah, we’re happy to pay a 40m fee, but not 5m a year in wages. You either rate him or you don’t. If the concern is that he turns out to be a white elephant then you’ll lose as much or more on the fee. I know you don’t want to double down, but he’s a Belgian international and 40m players on any age are not going to be on tiny wages. Vlasic is probs on 75k and he’s awful.

  • The Cat says:

    As a supporter, I shouldn’t give a 4 XXXX about the cost or club finances, but Eggy and his mob woke me up to the reality of football finances, decision making and the responsibility of the owners and manager for taking finances into account.
    The backdrop to this isn’t about the ambition of the club, but about the GREED of the player.
    If it were about ambition, it would’ve been all about the ambition of Onana to make this happen for all of the reasons that he became a footballer.
    Instead, this boy is in a hurry to become an overpaid player without any incentive.
    Having travelled on this Onana journey, I do NOT feel that he should be paid whatever he wants. We’ve had our fingers burnt enough times in the past and it is a precedent that you cannot afford to set.
    I mentioned it before but does anyone remember that midfield dynamo and future superstar Gedson Fernandes? Many of our supporters had a lot to say about him ending up at the spuds, instead of with us at the time… It was down to money on that occasion also.

  • Mr Buddy Lurve says:

    Everton are linked with everyone we’re linked with, along with Newcastle, so their ‘interest’ doesn’t bother me. I wholeheartedly support the manager & board’s decision on this one – we’re not a cash cow that people can milk for all it’s worth. We have to make shrewd, sensible signings like Flynn Downes, who I hope, along with Coventry, provides the quality backup to Dec and Tomas that we lacked last year (in Kral & Nobes). If the two of them can learn from D&T this year, I think we’ll be fine. I don’t think we’re at the point of our development where £34m for a relatively unproven 20-year-old is the right business. I trust in Moyes.

    • BoleynIrons says:

      It’s not the fee It’s the wages.
      How thus guy be Wirth more than Dec or Thomas. Let alone the others

  • West Ham Fan No 32 says:

    Onana is one that can walk straight into the team, he has already played a full international, at some point if we are going to be regulars in Europe we have to accept that there will be bigger variances in salary, all the big clubs have that, some on vastly more than others, it’s not particularly fair but it’s reality the best players or the most in demand can command greater rates. There is an argument based on good science that performance related pay doesn’t work, better to create learning cultures in the workspace as that is a better intrinsic motivator and leads to higher performance, the fly in the ointment with professional footballers are their agents who in many cases are only interested in the money and not the welfare of their player.

  • Hammers in the blood 1 says:

    Can’t believe we can’t match Everton’s offer either . This looks like going the way of other potential signings E.g Lingard , Kostic etc what are we doing

  • Clive says:

    If he plays and does well for Belgium in the upcoming World Cup his values going to go through the roof anyway.

  • Clive says:

    Shame we couldn’t have bought him and then loaned him out somewhere for a year. It will be very hard to sign him in a years time. If he does well for Everton in the premier league his value will probably go up the same way Declan’s did.

    • Think Gonzo is suggesting the Everton thing is hugely unlikely given their lack of resources and his demands

      • Hammers in the blood 1 says:

        Looks like he is having a medical at Everton , he will be worth so much money . This is a mistake from DM and board IMO

      • Steven Harvey says:

        SKY are sying he is at Everton for a medical now. So either Everton’s finances arent that bad or someone at West Ham is telling porkies about the wages

      • Babelm@n says:

        Having a medical apparently

  • Hammers in the blood 1 says:

    He will be sold before we go back in for him , he is a very decent player .

Comments are closed.