Nobody was shocked at the huge losses announced by West Ham United last week – however the fact that over one hundred million was the published loss exceeded most predictions – but the club had been telling anyone who wanted to listen that financial peril lay ahead, ever since last summer’s “we have to sell before we buy” transfer window commentary.
What is clear in hindsight is that the club have been desperately slashing the player wage bill – whether ahead of next seasons ‘Squad Cost Ratio’ regulations or just in a desperate bid to mitigate cash flying out of the door- by offloading some of the club’s biggest earners.
Since the summer of 2025, the player wage bill has been slashed:
Lucas Paquetá £150,000 per week
Danny Ings £125,000 per week
Niclas Fullkrug £100,000 per week (loan)
Edson Alvarez £100,000 per week (loan)
Emerson Palmieri £95,000 per week
Mohammed Kudus £90,000 per week
Guido Rodriguez £90,000 per week
Michail Antonio £85,000 per week
James Ward Prowse (Loan -Burnley now paying 85k) £85,000 per week
Carlos Soler £80,000 per week
Aaron Cresswell – £50,000 per week
Igor Julio £45,000 per week
Vladimir Coufal £35,000 per week
Luis Guilherme £35,000 per week
Evan Ferguson £30,000 per week
Maxwel Cornet £16,250 per week ( Loan-Genoa now paying this 25% of wages)
Wes Foderingham £15,000 per week
Andy Irving £15,000 per week
Callum Marshall £15,000 per week (loan)
In all something around £1,258,000 per WEEK slashed off the wage bill through player sales and loans. That’s approaching £65 million per season. Staggering. New signings are thought to be costing £32 million – meaning there’s a net saving of £33.5 million a year. If the club do get relegated, this will be the shape of things to come next summer.
Nineteen players out of the door since May last year. Is it any wonder our club is in utter turmoil?
( Thanks to Sean Whetstone)
We will certainly start next season in a better position regard wages.
I can’t recall when Fulkrug, Alvarez, JWP and Cornet’s contracts finish, but on the basis not all of them are this summer there is still some pain to suffer, whether the burden of wage or sales at reduced/nil value.
This will already be factored in the Board’s/Auditors comments regard us running out of cash by this summer. So on a mid term basis, may be Sullivan and Brady have learned a painful lesson on how and who they attract to the club (far too late a lesson given their longevity in the game). However, short term, we are still faced with a player/s needing to be sold to raise cash before we then need to sell to buy. If we stay up, unless we buy incredibly well (which we have failed to do in the last 15 years in any consistent manner), we will have a weaker squad next season than we do now, with the repurcussions that brings.
The reality is, if the shareholders do not want to invest more into the club (their perogative) then it needs to be run in an efficient business like manners, something that has proved beyond Sullivan and Brady as otherwise we wouldn’t be in this position.
Was in utter turmoil. Seems to me we have now got it pretty much sorted.
Turmoil began when Wee Davey Moyes was into his last year with no prospect of backing for the future. The rest is history.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion Taffy but I am always the polar opposite of yours – are you related to David Sullivan??