West Ham expect to complete the signing of Kurt Zouma from Chelsea once his medical is completed on Friday.
A late glitch appeared to have killed the deal yesterday but the player is expected to complete his medical in Paris – where he is on compassionate leave – tomorrow before becoming the club’s most expensive player.
He would need to be registered on Friday to be in contention to face Crystal Palace at the weekend should there be no snags on the medical although there have been suggestions that the player has a knee problem..
Attempts to sign Zouma were in doubt after negotiations with intermediaries ran into difficulties on Wednesday night, but those issues have now been resolved and a five year contract is in place.
The Mail revealed – like ClaretandHugh– earlier today – the personal terms are in the region of £125,000 a week which means the player has taken a cut of 0ver £20k a week to make the move.
Suggestions that the player is on £85,000 are wide of the mark for had that been the case the figure falls well within the West Ham wage structure ensuring that negotiations would have been completed much earlier.
Instead beating him and his agents down to the figure have ensured that talks have gone on for weeks before any sort of compromise was reached which have finally seen Moyes get his main man – medical permitting.
For sure he has not been offered a salary of 125k a week. if we have given him a contract like that we are an absolute joke of a club to have paid 25m for a very decent but not an excellent defender. I don’t believe it for one second and anyone that does would be very naive. By all account he was one of the lowest earners in the Chelsea squad.
He has I’m afraid
If true and I am not convinced that wage wise it is, it makes no sense, he is a decent player but not much better than an average PL defender and considerably worse than our best players so why would we risk dressing room harmony to make him our highest paid player ? Those are wages we need to keep in reserve for our top players, I can only think Moyes must know something the average armchair manager and all of the pundits that have questioned it do not which is entirely possible…
Promise you it’s correct
Moan moan moan . What our fan base does best .
We get priced out of signing players or pull back because too much money , people are a angry and say board is too tight
A week later they go and secure managers top choice signing and pay him top money to do it , and people are angry at that .
Is actually pathetic . To improve the team you have to buy better players… and guess what , they demand bigger wages.
And seems pretty clear the only reason rice isn’t earning that much or more is because he won’t sign a new deal …
I assume the wage figure being quoted by the media will include all win bonuses etc, like If we won all the cup competitions, plus the premier league etc, but I doubt that’s his basic wage.
I reckon this is a disaster in the making. He will be our highest earner but not even in our top 5 best players. This is the kind of signing we would have made a few years ago. Hope i am wrong
I couldn’t agree more. Over priced, overpaid and potentially damaging to the wage structure of the club and may lead to unsettling key, much better, players. A complete disaster – I would rather have no signings than panic buys.
Problem is it’s not a panic buy. Hes the one moyes wanted all summer
I think that is spin rather than fact.
Quoted at £145k very early in summer
This is a terrible decision, we are paying a very average defender who will be 27 soon, 125k a week on a 5 year contract with no possibility of selling him in the future. Two words Winston Reid !!!! Here we go again. Do we not learn any lessons, not alone will we not be able to sell him in future because he is on a stupid salary for his ability but not we will have to increase our own player salaries. What an expensive mistake this will turn out for the club. A terrible business decision and a terrible signing full stop from a financial perspective. Where has the promise of signing young talent gone !!