Nuno Espirito santo has made it quite clear he is prepared to make those ‘tough’ decisions when it comes to his squad and to the starting eleven. After the first few chaotic weeks when he tried – disastrously. inverted wing backs, players out of position – slowly his nucleus has evolved and those who have been discarded see no way back. Just ask James Ward Prowse.
Another ever present of the Potter and Lopetegui era, Maximilian Kilman, may well get his last shot at redemption on Monday night as the Hammers boss rotates his squad for the FA Cup fifth round tie at Brentford.
The £40 million man has never lived up to his hype when Lopetegui brought the former Wolves man to Rush Green. It is as if we’ve spent a year and a half waiting for this ‘hidden monster’ to throw off the quiet man exterior – but it has never happened.
Kilman remains on the periphery – physically perfect built to dominate yet mentally unwilling to step up and fill the expectation and the boots that successive managers have demanded.
Hopes were high but gentle giant Kilman has failed under three managers
With Disasi, Todibo and Mavropanos all ahead of him in the pecking order, Kilman has been shown up by a Chelsea loanee to such extent that whether Disasi leaves or gets convinced to stay, there’s likely no place in the Hammers eleven for the gentle giant who seemingly gets given short shrift by attackers week after week.
An extended FA Cup run might yet give ‘Maximilian’ the chance to put himself in the shop window – but other than that, West Ham’s £40 million man will be seeing out this season on the sidelines and joining the exodus in the summer. A huge loss beckons – as is now customary for the club – should they try and sell him. More than likely he’ll be heading for the championship either way.
Has anyone asked if he wants to play? Sitting, collecting a handsome wage, is not a bad life. No injury risk and home for dinner.
Think this is harsh, we had written off Hermansen a spell on the sidelines and he has been good since, Kilman isn’t a bad defender the price tag had nothing to do with him, hopefully they have been building his confidence and improving him through training and he comes back and looks like the player he is capable of being.
Kilmans value on the books will be down to £24m at the end of this season. That’s the applicable value if he were to be sold.
Where players are on the books at values above what we can sell them for we tend to loan them out, means their value on the books decreases further while they’re out on loan and they bring in a loan fee.
It’s not so much that we lose money on players as we spend large sums on players who do not perform.
It’s their lack of performance that costs us as that’s a bad investment in a player.
agreed, but there’s no way anyone is paying even £24 million for him. So looks like a couple of seasons out on loan along with all the other 2024 overpays.
I reckon we could get close to 20m for him from one of the promoted teams at least, would take that over loans (maybe having to pay some of his salary still) . Given the ridiculous length of his contract, just move on asap.