Yesterday I wrote an article about the possibility of signing free agent Yacine Brahimi adding that we had around £25m budgeted to spend in the summer plus the proceed of outbound sales.
What I did not articulate well enough in that piece is what that could really mean for the summer transfer window. A minimum of five players are expected to be up for sale this summer which is estimated to bring in £30m of sales. Those players are Javier Hernandez £10m, Arthur Masuaku £8m, Pedro Obiang £6m, Lucas Perez £3m and Carlos Sanchez £3m.
The possible sale of Jordan Hugill £8m, Reece Oxford £5m, Sam Byram £4m and Winston Reid £3m could raise a further £20m in funds.
Marko Arnautovic has a release clause of £45m in his new contract with a time limit on it and should China still want him it would cost 
them £45m.
Lots of ifs and buts in there but if all were sold on their realistic valuations the Hammers would have £95m to add the £25m budgeted brining a kitty of £120m
There will be some who will still say that £120m doesn’t go very far in today’s transfer market as we have to replace most of those who leave but lets remember Fabian Balbuena cost just £3.5m and Samir Nasri was a free transfer showing transfer fees aren’t everything and a free Yacine Brahimi may be one example how we could aim to replace some of the squad this summer.
The wages released from the likes Andy Carroll, Javier Hernandez, Lucas Perez and Carlos Sanchez would be massive and are thought to account for £400,000 per week alone or nearly £21m per year.
Time will tell who goes and who stays this summer but Pellegrini is only likely to sell players when he knows he can get someone in better within the club’s budget both in terms of up front fee and wages.
With Manuel Lanzini returning back from injury followed by the likes Yarmolenko in the summer our squad will naturally strengthen and with the likes of Ben Johnson, Grady Diangana, Connor Coventry and Nathan Holland knocking on the first team doors Pellegrini could save himself lots in squad players for cover.
Sell them all, time to build a real squad of players who have talent and are coachable
It remains to be seen what other teams are prepared to pay – e.g. despite what we paid, I think that we’d be lucky to get 8m for Hugill – on the other hand I think Obiang is worth more than 6m – so a palyer is worth what a team is prepared to pay
What I do agree with is the 45m for Arnie – I have said on here before that I think that the whole idea of the new contract was to put in the release clause
Sean you put a good spin on it but the fact is it is still only £25 million investment . Here’s why the players sold have to be replaced with better players if we are to improve and move forward. Therefore the money from sales will not cover getting better players it will be swallowed up or we will get average players that won’t improve us. Surely we can’t just have £25 million additional that is a joke . Thought the board , the club the manager wanted to be like a big club that amount of spend is not like a big club .your spin on it does not wash with me .
Spot on there mate.
I see Andy Carroll is not mentioned.Does that mean he’s a “bogof” deal? Buy one get one free.
IF we consider the net spend on players in the previous two years prior to last sumer was …£0 (Zero) £25mil. looks like a generous input by comparison….?
£8m for Hugill? I would suggest we’d be lucky to get £4m.
We bought him for £11m with add ons and he is still only 26
What you’re forgetting Sean he’s a championship player and not a very good one at that…. and we paid well over the odds for him.
Can’t see a good reason to sell Hernandez . Can only see good reasons for keeping him .
Realistic figures? – plus you missed out Fernandes These to go – Javier Hernandez £8m, Arthur Masuaku £7m, Pedro Obiang £7m, Lucas Perez £2m, Carlos Sanchez £2m Jordan Hugill £4m, Reece Oxford £2m, Sam Byram £2m and Winston Reid £2m, Edi Fernandes 8m, Josh Cullen 1m, Andy Carroll (off the payroll) gets us 45m plus 30m off the board and more if a European campaign beckons. I think Arnie will still be around I don’t believe anyone will cough up 45m with his age and temperament. Silva to step up as the 4th striker plus the other youth that you mentioned. Perhaps Zaba retires as well? So we need a left back, some strikers and Nasri to sign on for next season in midfield Plus Wilshire to come back.
Huggill was a bad buy, we will lose most of what we paid, I can’t understand why we only have £25m to spend ? Sean do you know the maths behind that number or the reason it is so low ? If I read between the lines of press releases we are going to do the same thing that happened to Slav in his second season and buy a load of u23’s or youth players instead of big names. I think that is bad unless they are world beaters, we need high quality technical players that have vision and pace, that can play the way MP wants them too.