West Ham fans have been hoping against hope that the club would escape relegation and with it the wholesale dismantling of their squad with the ‘vultures’ already circling for the top talent assembled at London Stadium.
The club’s huge financial black hole, with losses posted last year of £105 million, will need shareholder injections or player sales to fill the void. If relegation befalls the club, the likelihood of those sales being accelerated into something approaching a 2003 exodus grows that much stronger.
Insider reveals truly awful list of players who’ll leave the club if Championship football awaits
Claret and Hugh’s transfer insider – our source close to players at the club but independent from West Ham – has made a bleak pronouncement that will strike at the heart of every West Ham fan.
Huge consequences of relegation revealed by Claret and Hugh’s insider
In the event of the next three games failing to secure Premier League status, there’ll likely be a jaw dropping procession of player sales, the like of which the Hammers haven’t seen since 2002/3’s relegation into the Championship:
“Bowen, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Soucek, Summerville all definitely gone. Also 90% Fernandes. They need to immediately try and get rid of Taty .. and Pablo..: If they do go down only a few players will be left.”
This would indeed have truly awful echoes of twenty three years ago when the Irons were relegated and sold Joe Cole to Chelsea, Freddie Kanoute to Spurs, Glen Johnson to Chelsea, Paolo Di Canio to Charlton Athletic, Les Ferdinand to Leicester, Lee Bowyer to Newcastle and Trevor Sinclair to Manchester City – the sale of Jermain Defoe to Spurs followed four months later as the heart of the Hammers ‘too good to go down‘ side was ripped out.
Expiring contracts, too, for Axel Disasi, Callum Wilson and Adama Traore at the end of this season effectively means a whole first team of players leaving the club in one window.
Which is a sobering prospect indeed as the Hammers shape up to take on Arsenal.
A complete reset required the players are not good enough let most of them leave and bring on the youth players that have come through and the ones who are on Loan.
Forget the blame game mistakes are made and you have to rectify them and move forward as a club and find some sort of identity
I think we’re all pretty much prepared for that eventuality, and those of us old enough to remember the fire sale of 2003 know that it is possible to rebuild and come back strong. The important thing is going to be whomever is in charge of building the new team, and who they look to build it around. We’ll need someone that can get teams out of the Championship, and who has the nous to know where to look for the bargains that can do that.
Perhaps the team needs a clean sweep rebuild as well as the club as a whole needing it. Even the best players have not perforned that well, and if you compare them with the best players in the PL they’re not in the same class on any consistent basis. Fitness, motivation, concentration, and resilience have all been questionable all season. Nuno is as good a manager as West Ham are likely to get at the moment. But it took him weeks to turn it around somewhat, and the performances since then have been mostly mediocre. I would say let anyone go who wants to go and start from scratch.
Seems like a load of bollox. Firstly, the player that is 100% going is Fernandez. He’s the biggest asset and has the most concrete interest. Bowen is not going to command a big fee, neither is Soucek. If anyone sticks around it’ll be those two. There are still a shed load of players to make up the financial shortfall without selling the only two who always turn up.
Somehow I see Bowen and Souchek remaining. Depends how hard David Moyes pushes for them though I suppose. They might be tempted.
If we go down let them go, they clearly are not as good as everyone including themselves think otherwise they would not have got relegated. Managers play a part ofcourse but it’s the players on the pitch that win games. To many not getting stuck in & pulling their weight in the first half of the season has got us where we are not just bad management. I’ve made my peace with the prospect of relegation now & it may not be such a bad thing in the long run. ⚒⚒⚒
In questioning whether Bowen & Soucek stay or go, there is a presumption that they will have a choice. We are in a serious financial position if we get relegated. I can’t recall how much we owe other clubs for outstanding transfer fees but it is significant, comfortably over £100m from memory, but we have sold our outstanding fees from transfer outs. We are in debt which will need to be repaid in the summer and will not be able to simply renew our facilities as our tv money will be much less, as will gate revenue, advertising, sponsorship & merchandise.
Whilst some of this will be offset by a reduced wage bill, this will not be enough. We will also need to sell to buy.So we need to sell players. Bowen, Fernandez & Jimmy are our most valuable players but we may need to sell all 3x just to break even cash wise and still need to sell to buy. Soucek, Diouf, AWB and Tobido are next in the pecking order. If we sell Taty &/or Pablo we will almost certainly lose money on both of them.
Maybe we will get a pleasant surprise and see Sullivan and Kretinsky invest a relatively significant amount of cash but I’m not holding my breath.
Bowen is not golden goose. He’s 30 next season. Where is he realistically going to go? You could understand wanting European football but any club in CL isn’t looking at a 30 yo. Perhaps palace as they’re local and likely Europa league. We’d make more on Mav, Todibo, Diouf than Bowen.
And there is only one man to blame for it all SULLIVAN
If Sullivan and co do have a fire sale of all of west hams best players! Then they won’t have a fanbase and the bowl will be empty with 20,000 at best ! They should leave now and let some professionals try and get the club back to where they belong ? It’s disgusting that the fans are bearing the brunt of Sullivans mess! He should be ashamed of himself for what he has done!!!
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Bowen will stay 100%. After the World Cup, his international career is probably finished and is playing in the Champions League for one or two seasons more compelling than staying and being a club legend, at a club that has become literal family to him? I just don’t see him leaving. I do see the club trying to sell him however 🤣
No s*** sherlock
Bowen and Soucek wont go if they want to retain their legend status. I will drive the rest of them away myself.
Bowen? Really? And Soucek? I’d be surprised
No real surprise there. Not the end of the world after all if we go down then this current team not good enough for the prem anyway. It will give us a chance to take stock and rebuild.
Well said Harvey, 😅, this team has been clinging on to premiership survival for too long , and has in all honesty somehow managed to punch above its weight for an awful long time, aside of a couple of lucky wins here and there , what is there to shout about? A new level ? , boring defensive football, no owned home ground or training ground , overpaid underperforming players and run by self serving megalomaniacs, just saying 🙏🏻
No surprise in any of the above and some excellent servants of the club in the list but the way I see it is going down is a proper chance for a reset, which we do need!
Was resigned at Christmas to us going down but in true West Ham fashion they give you hope! In my view the weekend killed that but I can’t be the only one that thinks the championship will be fun!
Been a shambles all season from board to bootroom. Need a clear out from top to bottom, which will be a great opportunity for the development squad. Bring in Scott Parker with Noble overseeing signings.
A sobering thought. It also brings into the question as to what truly is ‘legend’ status. Some players have given their all for this great club, but legends? True legends are those who fully commit -no matter what division we are in. Think Sir Trev, Billy Bonds and Bobby Moore (he joined Fulham not because we were relegated but because the club shamefully shat on him and he wanted to extend his playing days). Those (and others who stuck with us in all divisions) are our legends, no-one else qualifies.
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well said