What is £110m in debt between friends?
Madness.
Sorry, utter madness.
West Ham United, currently sat at £110m in debt, are talking about paying £100,000 a week to a striker in order to remain in the top flight!
How bad are the clubs finances that they have to stay in the English Premier League so badly that they would take such a gamble? No matter what way you slice it up, it is a monumental gamble and paying a six figure sum per week to one player may cause more trouble than it brings benefits.
For that sort of money, you are looking at a big name and that name may well be Ruud van Nistelrooy. He may have a face like a horse but even after all his injuries; he has a nose for goal. Mind you, with all of those injuries behind him, you would hope that any new club has some form of pay-per-play deal for the player.
West Ham United will have this in mind if they are trailing van Nistelrooy, won’t they? Then again, if they are in the hunt for the player with other teams who don’t have to offer this level of protection, they may find they aren’t able to include this provision.
David Sullivan told Radio 5 Live the following:
“We’ve offered £100,000-a-week to a player today and we are still not sure we are going to get him.” “That was a very special player.
“He’s got the choice of almost every club in Europe. He has played at the highest level.
“He’s down to three clubs and West Ham are the only English club still in the hunt for him.
“We can carry one exceptional player, who would make a difference on that wage, but generally we have to bring the wages down and in the summer we would hope to sign younger players on a fraction of those wages.
“We’re in a crisis and you have to have a different strategy to what our long-term strategy will be.”
If he had the choice of every club in Europe, he would not be choosing West Ham. With the players choice supposedly being narrowed down to three clubs, you have to wonder how good he currently is…or if he is worth the money?
If he was guaranteed to grab goals, clubs higher than West Ham United would be in for him…but this is maybe why West Ham United are having to pay over the odds so much?
Given the current financial difficulties that many people are facing, how will the terracing take to this news? Many fans will be delighted if the player can keep them up but it marks another major division between club and fans.
Also, how will the rest of the players take to the new star who is being offered a massive pay packet compared to them. If the Hammers players are sensible, they should take the new player and realise he is their best chance of staying up (remember Carlos Tevez?) but will they?
Players have ego’s and like the high life so they may take umbrage at a new player coming in and taking a much larger wage. After all, it takes eleven players to make a team.
If the player was only kept on until the end of the season, the money would be more than recouped if the goals keep the Hammers up. Be it a loan deal or a contract with a view to sell the player after he kept them up, it could be a gamble that pays off…but is Zola the man to keep the club up?
Would this money possibly be better used on getting in a manager who is ready for the fight at the bottom of the league?
WeKnowFA doesn’t want to see Zola out of a job. He was an excellent player and seems a great personality but there are times when you need to roll up the sleeves and fight to stay up. Can Gianfranco inspire his players to fight for their EPL survival?
So many questions but they all keep coming back to the same point.
Are Gold and Sullivan mad?
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mate maybe we would get money back from the shirt sales for someone like rvn, he will score goals, he will add experience to the young players such as hines, stanislas, and collison and it would give the team a boost and give them belief. you cant call someone an idiot who is worth 600 million and yet he has more experience than most owners in the premier league and yet you are critisizing the deal and owners.
what a shit article so biast
Ironssssssssssssssssss
What a load of old spunkballs.
Do the maths, say 6 months on 100k a week = £2.5m. If this is the deciding factor in a club staying up then a season of premiership football (i.e. tv rights, tickets, merchandise) over championship football could be worth £40m in pecuniary terms alone, let alone the long term damage it can cause and/or the continuity of the club.
Is 2.5m worth risking to save 40m?
Its good to get the opinion of the Hammers fans, obviously you guys are desperate to get a goal scorer in to hopefully stay up.
At the moment, it looks as though Pompey are away, so that just leaves the two spaces left for the drop. And it is between a lot of teams – if the Hammers can keep hold of Carlton Cole, surely this will be better for them as opposed to lashing out so much money?
It is a huge gamble trying to spend this amount of money on a player for a club like West Ham and we stand by the statement that it could cause a rift in the dressing room – apart from that, it also sounds like the tasteless brash boasting that has become synonymous with Gold and Sullivan. The English Premier League has went mad with money and this deal is just part of it.
As for Jimmy’s comment – brilliant stuff, it would be interesting to know where the bias lies?
What guarantee is there that this player will keep West Ham up?
Kevin Keegan probably thought that the signing of Tino Asprilla would be the one that would secure the title for Newcastle United but it helped disrupt the dressing room and counteract a lot of the good work that had been built up to that point.
With £110m in debt, perhaps the club should be looking to live within their means and structuring themselves better?
Still, its good to see the passion for the battle is there from the Hammers.
if you where smarter, you would be embarrassed for writing this shite.
enjoy your ignorance, you people say it’s bliss.
Well Rob, we would never claim to be smarter than anyone….and embarrassment can come from many different reasons.
We are in a relegation battle and need a proven striker, G&S know what they are doing. We don’t no what is going on behind the scenes or what will happen if RVN is brought in.And what gaurarantees is there that if we bring in ’someone within their means’ will keep us up. We need to pull away from the bottom oor its here we go again.
Only a team run by idiots would offer a 33 year old has been those kind of wages. In a realistic world RVN should be coming to a team like Everton or Spurs, but in the bizarro world that is the EPL they will probably pay horseface over 100k. Totally absurd.
I think the players at West Ham would probably understand the difference in wages with perhaps the exception of Carlton. Although saying that it all depends on who this player is, and if it will actually happen.
As we said in the article Tanner, it is really important that the players do understand that this player (if he comes) could be the difference between staying up or not. However, players aren’t always rational beings.
Mind you, if someone new came into your (not you personally Tanner, just in general) office at the same level, albeit admittedly better at the job and got between 3 to 5 times your weekly wage, how would you react?
It is a big gamble.
We had players on higher wages than others,i.e Lucas Neil and ,yet managed to keep the football above relegation after the great escape. Hes wages may not be has high as RVN, but still very high. It’s a gamble that has to be taked,if he was to come to our club and if what is stated in the press is all true.
And I doubt G&S are mad or either stupid,they have been in this game along time and run a club before. Lets wait and see,it may not even be RVN.
Dave, thanks for your input, some very good points there.
yes, it is a gamble…then again, doing nothing would be a gamble as well wouldnt it? time will tell, we still say the Hammers are too good to go down (not that this is the attitude anyone on the park should have, no one is too good to go down) but more that they should get by and stay above enough of the other teams they are fighting against.
G&S did run a club before but this move, if it comes off, seems to be quite different from how they run it before – okay, the Brummies did bring in players like Dugarry but probably at nowhere near the same level. They also brought in players like Chris Sutton nearing the end of their career for high wages and look at how that ended up for them.
Perhaps because of the level of Hammers debt, the stakes could be higher.
Thanks for all the debate guys, apologies if it has came across heavy handed to you…but maybe we are just getting scunnered with the sort of money on the go in the English top flight at the moment and this, with the backdrop of the Hammers situation, just seems like a big crazy step!
Still, best of luck to the hammers, we have no great desire to see them drop out of the top flight, you can always rely on them to give a big team a bloody nose at least once a season…and thats what we all like to see isnt it?
I do agree it is a different move to the Birminham situation at that time,but I am confident they will keep us stable,as they do have the knowledge and are good at wheeling and dealing. The squad we have at our disposal is a but weak but even so they have kept their heads high and played some nice footie out there and grinded out results. If we get a proven striker or two to aid cole when hes back and others,we have a good shot at staying up
The Daily Mail is running with the story that the Hammers are one of the clubs interested in signing Kris Boyd from Rangers…but on a Bosman in the summer.
Boyd has many failings but he can put the ball in the back of the net. Perhaps maybe not against the big teams though – he would only cost about £20,000 to £25,000 a week though.
Again with Boyd, it would be a gamble – if he isnt scoring he offers nothing, he hasnt covered himself in glory against big teams, he is very much a Rangers man who would accept much lower money to stay with the club than go elsewhere…and he loves Monster Munch crisps.
That said though, put the ball in the box and he is likely to stick it away.
I’ve heard Boyd is not coming to us mate.
As has already been mentioned, a contract to the end of the season on these wages will cost a rough total of £2.5m. Last season it cost Real Madrid £1.5m + wages to loan Julian Faubert for that same period of time. When viewed from this angle, this would be anexcellent deal for a player of RVN’s pedigree. Personally I don’t believe we would get relegated even if we made no signings this window, but to make sure of it we need a player that can come in and guarantee goals. If fit, Ruud does that.
Kris Boyd is a good player in the Scottish Premiership, but so is Georgios Samaras. There is no guarantee that he would even score one goal.
With regards to [let's assume it is] RVN, as someone once mentioned elsewhere, when Valon Behrami looks up to play a through ball and sees Ruud making a run rather than Diego Tristan or David Di Michele, he’ll be delighted we’re paying out 100k a week for a striker. It also sends out a message of intent to our young players that may have been tempted to move on and also our star players that are already interesting big clubs and spurs.
Again Leon, thanks for your thoughts and input.
We’ll deal with the SPL strikers first – Boyd is a finisher, nothing more, nothing less. However, he is probably Championship at best – he is not suited for a team like Wst Ham where he would be expected to dig hard and link up the play. We do believe if he got service though that he would score.
Samaras…well, it depends what way the wind is blowing isnt it? One of the most infuriating and ‘confidence’ players you will ever find.
There is no doubt that an experienced head can be a plus point for youngsters in the dressing room. In fact, if it was RVN, the best thing the Hammers could do would be tell him to take the strikers training for an afternoon a week and show them how to move away from defenders and make space.
With RVN, it is probably a lot of instinct that gets him in the right place at the right time…but he may be able to have that rubbing off on others.
Hopefully his injury problems are behind him….not that being out of the starting XI of Real Madrid is any great concern for a player.
There is just a nagginmg solution that if RVN was still capable of doing the job, there would be greater interest. It is similar to the summer situation when Michael Owen was being linked with mid-to-bottom teams and then out of nowhere, Man U signed him up.
That maybe hasnt worked out as all would have liked but you can see why all parties were happy with that deal.
why is everyone making a big deal about west hams £110 million debt’s but Manchester united have got debts off £716 million .. the £100,000 a week for this player with be worth it we are in need of a good striker
WeknowFA. You really are accurate with your description. I’ve never seen such dross, the use of “we” like there is more than one of you contributing to the comments is worrying at best. I hope that you are no older than 16 and are a little over enthuistic. As pointed out several times the purchase of RVN makes financial sense, if you had a little bit more experience you would realise D & D are doing their job as new owners and providing nice soundbites for the press and supporters. Make no mistake they are shrewd businesmen and have plans that will make their purchase valid. Ignore the Champ League talk and the “near the brink” talk and try to read between the lines. The more interesting discussion for this thread would be to discuss which players would make good “sticky plaster” signings and whether D & D will stick with Zola after this summer? Also the merits of the olympic stadium and the four year buyout option (currently open to supporter investment)
…Are you an idiot?
We wernt going to give Real Madrid any transfer fee for the loan and we would simply pay £100,000 a week (I know its alot) but with what 20 or so weeks of the league left of the season we would only pay around £2million for a quality striker!
Its good buisness silly man!
G&S are just pulling your chains…………in their 16 years in football, they have never payed a player more than £30k check the facts……………………spin spin spin
I had a look at the facts royaaa1. It turns out they paid several players that last week. They own a big club now. Hard luck.