Javier Hernández reportedly wants £140,000 per week to rejoin the Premier League. The 29-year-old Mexican knows he has one more pay day left in him and therefore a four-year deal for the striker would cost up to £24m in wages on top of the reported modest £13m transfer fee.
So the real investment for the Hammers could be as much as £37m to land the former Manchester United man.
The highest paid player at West Ham is currently Andy Carroll at the moment on £85,000 per week with Michail Antonio on £70,000 per week but Manuel Lanzini about to join the highest earners club somewhere in between.
If Hernandez were to join he could find himself on double the wages of both Antonio and Lanzini.
We ask the simple question, should West Ham break their wage structure to sign their summer target?
I don’t think the issue is paying one player 140k a week. The issue will be clauses in other player contracts that mean they have to earn so much in comparison to the highest earner. Carroll, Ogbonna, Lanzini, Antonio, maybe Obiang probably have clauses in their new contracts that mean they get a major pay rise if someone comes in on that sort of money. Then all of a sudden you have 5/6 players earning over 100k/120k a week and our wage budget goes out the window.