West Ham must spend big in winter window
West Ham‘s board can and must spend big in the winter window to patch up a squad which is currently falling apart via injuries and AFCON!
Suggestions that they have to be careful with their spending due to FFP was not not backed up by football finance expert Kieran Maguire when speaking to Claret and Hugh‘s Sean Whetstone from Moore than just a podcast.
West Ham board must spend big in winter window
With Mohammed Kudus and Nayef Aguerd away, and Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and Mikey Antonio injured and potential problems regularly facing Kurt Zouma, the board need replacements in a hurry.
Until the Bristol City match we had been fortunate with injury issues but they have caught up fast and hit our best players with even Kudus suffering a hamstring problem.
If we are to maintain a top of the table position and Euro League challenge, finance must be plunged into the market this winter.
The board have claimed there is little cash available but Maguire claims finance most certainly should be available. He insists the club has no FFP concerns this January and are in no danger of FFP breaches for the Premier League or UEFA.
West Ham board must spend big in winter window
West Ham have lost £32.9m over the last three years but Premier League clubs are allowed to lose up to £105m over three years when a shareholder injects cash as Daniel Kretinsky did two years ago in the form of a rights issue worth £125m.
The Hammers have also not breached the UEFA loss target over three years as that limit is set at 60m euros which equates to around £52m.
There had been concern that West Ham were close to the limit of wages and transfers to turnover but Maguire insisted this was not the case due to the Declan Rice money last summer.
He told Sean the UEFA financial monitoring period runs from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024 so that the Rice money is included to give West Ham a massive FFP buffer.
The Hammers are allowed to spend 80% of their annual turnover on wages, transfer and agent fees so with nearly £237m of revenue last season West Ham should have an expenditure budget of around £190m this season.
With West Ham wages around £137m and transfer instalments around £65m per season there had been concern that the Hammers would be forced to sell to buy over January.
But Maguire said that the Declan Rice money gives the Hammers a £100m buffer and that the club so can spend big should they like as a result.
