It can be no surprise that David Sullivan goes into successive transfer windows pleading poverty or PSR sustainability as the reason West Ham United are broke and will be dependent upon player sales to fund transfers. Whether anybody believes him is another matter: After last summer’s spend of £140 million – prior to which agains the Hammers claimed there wasn’t a big budget- you could be forgiven for thinking that another pot of gold is ready to spend when the 24-5 season ends.
Whatever the reality, you cannot blame Sullivan for talking down West Ham’s budget. The shocking – and I use the word wisely – hiking of prices by clubs with a player to sell scenting blood is par for the course : The imbalance of finances across Europe means that the Premier League now out muscles all but the world’s richest: West Ham sit something like fifteenth in the richest list of soccer clubs so their buying power is immense but elsewhere ion Europe many chairmen try their luck hoping the Hammers will grab a deal at an exaggerated price.
The Proof? Take the striker Johnathan Burkhardt, for instance. Claret and Hugh covered his winter move in an article in December at which he was quoted at £20 million:
Two months – not two years, just two months- later and that same player is linked with summer sale in bild.de at FIFTY million pounds.
Which is absurd. But it typifies the problem as a Premier League club chairman trying to bring in decent quality strikers for who the immediate asking price is more than doubled when news of a PL club interest is even just a whiff of possibility.
So don’t be surprised to see the Hammers pleading poverty all summer until the very moment their ‘prize capture’ is shown holding the shirt, There’s a very good reason for it, and in the meantime we’ll all have to endure another four months of crazy rumours.
The buying club is almost as guilty as the selling club in my view. Look at Danny Ings for example. Ludicrous contract for a player who barely held down a regular week in week out start at any of this last 3 clubs. Now (and who blames him) he’s drawing the cash until his contract expires. If 8/20 clubs offer mad contracts then let them, we can have what’s left. Brighton/Bournemouth/Forest seem to find these gems at cheaper prices so why can’t we. It would please old tight get Sullivan that’s for sure.
Maybe because Burkhardt has scored 14 with 3 assists in 20 matches is the reason
Scottish mctominay was a case in point. We were quoted 40 million and then he goes to Italy for 25million.
Due diligence is required . So many no name weeds in inferior leagues are hyped as being the next best player . Almost every player that Westham are considering selling seems to be offered at half their purchase price . That tells a story . On principal Westham should promote several of their academy players to the first team to avoid being ripped off in the Euro market .
I wonder how much West Ham’s sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal for £100M+, contributed to today’s trend where unproven kids are being quoted in the £20M to £50M range (even £90M in one ridiculous case). Of course, the big difference is that Rice had already amassed 245 PL appearances and 43 for England at the age of 24. Some of the names being bandied about today register zero and zero in those two categories, so buying clubs need to force a reset.