I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the Winston Reid issue of late and of course watching the extreme Twitter reactions whenever his still unaccepted contract is mentioned.
I’ve read on the one hand that if he doesn’t accept he should be made to rot in the reserves or on the other that he should be offered £70k a week which the tweeter assumes will see him immediately reach for the old Bic!
Extreme reactions are always the wrong reactions and it seems that Reid’s only issue in all of this is to get the possible deal for him and he’s determined to wait until the last minute if necessary.
It’s all too easy to start talking about loyalty and what we as lifelong Irons believe he should or should not do but I’ve never believed the ‘L’ word has a serious place in the world of football.
Players who have served the club well are quickly offloaded when their best years are behind them or if a board receives an offer which see them interested in trousering the cash. Loyalty? No I don’t think that’s a word we need to dwell on..
More pertinent perhaps is how the club has allowed the situation to reach a point where the central defender could be lost for nothing in the summer.
Well, I don’t think – indeed I know – that wasn’t the plan. The two chairmen are canny guys who would have done a deal in a heartbeat given the chance.
No, what’s happening here is that Winston is determined to give himself a chance of the best possible deal – whether with us or someone else – and all the loose chat going on in the media right now is part of the plot .
Those close to him perhaps will plant a story here and a story there to keep the interest going and thus worry the supporters to death – par for the course…been going on since there was a King on the throne!
So the situation is simple: It’s down to Reid. If he stays…GOOD. If a club comes in – and I find it highly significant that none has yet, nor has there been an inquiry, we’ll live with it simply because we have to.
Given that he’s been offered £60k a week there’s obviously cash around for a great replacement and if that’s what it comes down to in the end I hope that man will be Micah Richards should it prove necessary.
Whatever the result of this rather tiresome soap opera, life goes on. We are becoming a real good team and that could influence Winston in the end but – to finish with a well worn cliche – no player is bigger than this club!
I’ve never thought that Loyalty has much of a place in Football – a players career can be over tomorrow so he’s got to look after himself as best he can.
From a Club’s point of view they are only too quick to show a player the door when his usefulness is not what it once was. The perfect example of this is the way that Bobby Moore was treated by West Ham – I think everyone would agree that it was pretty shameful.
Getting back to Winston Reid, he is a good player and well worth the money being offered.
There are other players on our books who are getting more and are nowhere near as good – it’s a game of brinkmanship where West Ham have to decide whether to pay a bit extra and secure his services for a couple of more years or let him go for nothing.
I think he’s worth it – think how much he would cost to replace!
Yeah indeed. I said some of that Mick but your conclusion assumed he may want to stay when that may not be the case regardless of moeney
Oh right, you obviously know more than me – maybe he sees himself at a ‘bigger’ club and West Ham are powerless to stop him – that would be a great shame.
Could be the case mate
There used to be loyalty in players,look at people like Sir Trev. many a time he chose us as opposed to going,Bonzo,Parkes,Stewart,Potts snr.Moore,thats just a snapshot of player’s who stayed at our club when wanted by other’s.That’s as i said just our club.Money,and more money is to blame.With Reid he want’s to see where we finish,and to see if Liverpool get a Champions league place.He has made no secret of the fact he fancies Liverpool,and Rodger’s has made no secret,that he’d jump into that bed.Meanwhile we’re checking out Antonio Rudiger as an eventual replacement. C.O.Y.I.
Maybe I’m picking his up wrong but it seems to me that Reid wants to leave for a “better and bigger” club?
There has been some interest from other clubs but they don’t think he is worth the fee being asked or the wages he thinks he deserve.
Also they have doubts that he is quite as good as he and his agent thinks he is. Otherwise he would have been snapped up by now.
West Ham have made a new contract offer with improved wages of £60 grand a week. That offer has been on the table for a while but as yet to be signed.
My thoughts are if he wants to go then he will go! But in the long run it may not be everything he wanted(Diame wanted Liverpool got hull!), my only concern would be that we are short at centre back as it is and if Reid were to leave that would leave us needing a quality replacement plus another.
Also if he goes in January it could leave us in the mire!
I personally think the deal they have offered him is not in line with the value he provides to the team when you look at it compared to the salaries being paid to other players within that team. If the figure mentioned 60k is correct, then you are looking at around £12.5m across a 4 year contract, the question then is how much would it cost in today’s market to replace him, I think it’s going to be significantly more than that because you would be paying a transfer fee, agent’s fee plus salary… If it’s purely financial for him then you can see based on the quality of his performances for the club why he would be interested in holding out. If it turns out to be career aspirations then we just have to hold out and see if one of the big clubs come in for him and if they don’t then negotiate again at a later stage.
It really pains me when I hear these excuses about going to bigger clubs it purely is all about money , I don’t blame anyone for getting financially rewarded what they deserve but surely Reid can see this is his level game time at any of the top sides would be limited as he is only a slightly above average player ( who has been superb for west ham I might add) . Surely these players must start to realise that playing and being very good for an average team is far better than not realising your potential and earning an extra 10 grand a week being a back up for someone and potential not being realised
Reidy get your pen out and be recognised as a west ham great and show everyone how good you are on a football pitch. There’s more to life than money !!!!