West Ham are delaying talks with Winston Reid’s agents on a new deal after discovering the defender is looking for a “top six” wage deal.
With a year to go on his current contract,
the board have learned that the player will want around £75,000 a week to stay at the club beyond next summer.
And with other options available to them, the club is in no rush to pursue such a deal.
Were they to agree to the terms being sought it would represent a near 100 per cent pay increase.
And this morning ClaretandHugh was told: “Talks will be held in due course but they want £75k which is crazy money.”
The club are ready to play a waiting game knowing that for the Kiwi to get what he wants it would need a top six club to come in.
That hasn’t happened for a player who found it tougher to hold his place in the team after injury last term yet has been regularly linked with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Reid has a year left on his deal and may choose, anyway, to let the deal run down and leave on a Bosman next summer.
Greedy, why did we leave it so long to get this done
Normal time to talk – a year before he is out of contract
Par for the course, year left on contract with the likes of Arsenal etc previously linked…..
1. It can’t be done on the cheap at this stage of the game prior to moving to the OS.
2. He IS an essential part of our plans & therefore deserves to be on par with the rest of the high earners. He is also a possible future captain.
3. Maybe surviving is the honest option and Harry (as much as I hate to give him credit) is RIGHT in assessment that to move forward you have to provide the necessary funds instead of looking to blame the manager!
4. Top players = Top Football.
It must be me, but I saw this coming months ago. I agree with New606 on timing though, why leave it till now? If they started earlier then it wouldn’t be a shock and negotiations could take place without backs to the wall.
Negotiate and sign him up for a further 3yrs on 60k a wk now, he’s worth it.
Great player….. lets show we mean business to our future signings, because if we pay good money, we will get good quality players, if we are careful.
We can’t hope to bag bargains or troublesome players on the cheap all the time. Let’s get Reid tied in now, get his head right for the future and not let him get turned by some top six side.
If anyone in our squad deserves this kind of money it is Reid, who I would say is the far best player. Ok, Noble won player of the year, but if it wasnt for Reid being injured he would have gotten it. He is the only one that would take a place in any team in the league. Top three CB in PL? If the club is to take a step forward Winston Reid must be part of the team. See him as a very proven free transfer coming in and offer him lets say 60K?
Look, we pay Nolan around £60k for being a huge influence off the pitch, sadly he doesn’t match it with his performances on it. I think Winston is fair to ask to be one of the best paid players at the club, the problem is the other wages are so far over inflated for the others it really looks like he is being greedy.
It’s for these reasons we will never progress under the David’s.
Winston is worth every penny of this, he’s the type of player we should be building team around. Surely getting him tied down long term is as good as any new signing we make this year and should be priority. Would take him a million times ahead of our so called captain