ClaretandHugh Exclusive By Hughie Southon
Tomas Soucek’s agents – having seen new contract terms of around £95k a week rejected by West Ham- are considering approaches from the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A for the midfielder
We understand that clubs first became interested a couple of months ago when it became clear that manager David Moyes was unready to offer the 27 year old an improved deal.
The player had hoped for a decent rise on his £60k a week basic wage which we are told made him the eighth worse paid player at the club.
After negotiations following his Hammer of the Year winning season he had hoped for an increase of approaching £100,000 following the arrival of Kurt Zouma on a reported £125,000 a week .
But his representatives were shocked when the Hammers boss allegedly made it clear that he was unready to recommend such a deal.
That left the player unhappy that he wasn’t considered good enough for such a rise even after a brilliant season and of course may have affected his form this term beyond the manager’s decision to use him a different role to that of his first superb season.
The refusal to offer the player a new deal was first reported exclusively by Claret and Hugh in February and nothing has changed since Update on today’s Soucek contract talks – Claretandhugh
Unless the manager and club have a big change of heart Tomas is set to depart despite club assurances elsewhere that he is an integral part of the club’s future.
Good grief – it’s ‘eighth WORST player at the club’.
sOrry worst PAID
If it is true, it’s unbelievable that our second or third best player is earning less than Zouma and despite running more Kms than anyone in Europe can’t get £100k, we paid Reid 80k and Soucek is leagues ahead of him.
Considering Soucek’s work rate, I would hope this isn’t true. He has been amazing for us in his first season and a half. Last season, he wasn’t at his best, but he still worked hard every game and was always willing to put his head in dangerous places. I definitely think he needs to be treated better in relation to some others in the squad.
I’ll normally back David Moyes on most things – and mostly he’s done pretty well, in my opinion. But not this time. I’m very disappointed if he considers Soucek only worth half of what Zouma is worth to the team, for example, and worth less than the likes of Lingard perhaps. That’s not meant to be anything against Zouma who’s been excellent since joining us. This season in a more withdrawn role Soucek has done plenty of the unfashionable hard yards, covering, blocking etc. match after match. He gets no respite in the international weeks either – there’s never any rest for Tomas. If he’s been less effective than last season in the eyes of many, including it seems Moyes, then it’s perhaps because he’s been flogged week after week for 2 seasons. If we lose him we may lose Coufal as well and they’re both the type of hard-grafting professionals that we need for the Prem and Europe. We need to recruit to supplement Soucek in our squad, not replace him. And what happens if and when Declan leaves? Tomas is a victim of his own success and I’ll be bitterly disappointed if we don’t respect what this man has brought to our squad and reward him accordingly.
Well said Good Old Daze. Can’t quite work out where we’ve gone from an almost great season, to a really good season to a few days later to a confused, worrying summer transfer window.
The sooner we start signing some really positive additions to the squad the better……from both a fans and players point of view.
Shameful own goal by our management. You just don’t treat the player of the year that poorly, then force a change in his positional play then outcast him. Man management – how not to do it
40 mill yes please can’t score can’t tackle loses the ball and definitely can’t pass a ball . Attributes this season as before good engine runs all day but that’s not worth keeping when 30 or 40 mill gets you a top centre defensive midfielder. Get rid Moyes my son and make sure you can get better quality alongside Dec next season.
Tomas will get his deserved pay rise at West Ham, wait n see.
I love Tomas but he is clearly struggling to get any where near the great player he is, maybe it is positional but many players are asked to play a different role and succeed and some become even better.
How long do you persist with an out of form player?
Not purely down Soucek but at times it’s like playing with 10 men.