After being told that the club needs to sell to sign, which, after a 2m loan fee from Fenerbache for Alvarez, means we can now spend 40m on Fernandes.
But after the board have told us continuously that the club is stricken by PSR/FFP, and there’s no cash flow into the club. Suddenly, there is money!
Looks like we’re after 3 midfielders at the least.
How strange….
🤡🤡🤡🤡
92 comments · 93% upvoted · other discussions
Probably decided that any fine from PSR is worth it over relegation. Which it is, if we're relegated we're not coming back any time soon.
100% it is.
It’s strange when we’ve had to wait until the last few days of the window to make signings.
I wonder if it’s like end of the month for car dealerships or something. You have more leverage as time passes, the money becomes more difficult to reject; especially if Southampton wants to buy a few players before the deadline. I don’t know for sure, just wonder.
I’d imagine there’s a combination of things at play.
Southampton know they’ve an asset there, and can get a good deal for him. But, the player, possibly through agent, puts pressure on them to let him go. Southampton, combined with premier league money, parachute payments etc, will financially be okay, so it’s their lack of rush to sell.
But they wanted 50m for him, West Ham will pay around 42m, to me and you 8m is a lot of money, in football, not so much.
West Ham’s sudden desire and need to buy players will just push them to pay what is needed. But it’s not just Fernandes, they’re after Timber from PSV and that lad from Monaco is also in London for a medical. So they money is there clearly….
Yeah, that tracks. The $$ in football now is absurd, but you’re right, in the aggregate, this is not as eye watering of a fee as it used to be.
All I really want is a competent midfield with pace…
West Ham are very financially stable, very.
The money is football is crazy, but it’s a business at the end of the day.
I just wanted a midfield built around Alvarez as captain.
I wish we could’ve kept him, and by all accounts he was a strong presence in the dressing room as well. Anyway, here’s hoping we turn things around. Then again, I am a West Ham fan…
Fella was a leader, it’s what we were missing. He was our best player on his day, and just because his name wasn’t Rice, it went unnoticed.
Me too matey, here’s to being ever optimistic Hammers….
It is.
Everyone here whines at the board as if signing a player is like picking up a can of beans off the shelf is Aldi.
There's so many people involved (buying club has manager, director of football, owner, investor; selling club has the same; then there's the player, their agent, their family). And each has priorities and preferences.
A player being bought at this stage usually means: * The player had interest from 2-3 other clubs, but those clubs didn't offer the seller enough or they player enough. * The buying club had 2-3 other players they would rather sign, but those players didn't want to come or got a better offer elsewhere. * The selling club hasn't sold the other players they wanted to and are panic selling who they can, to cover costs.
Nothing unusual for our West Ham.
We are nowhere near PSR, Sullivan just touted that line because he's a tightarse. We had a 90m+ headroom for PSR a few weeks ago.
why do people say this? recent years have proved it is literally easier than ever to bounce back in two years, if not straight away
The thing is, and the difference is, West Ham don’t have any assets. They’re in 62k seater stadium, that attendance would drop by half, they don’t own the stadium, the premier money wouldn’t be going into the club, the club lose sponsorship, TV revenue etc.
I agree, it’s proved easier, but would you want West Ham in the championship?
no i’d absolutely rather avoid relegation and i get your point about assets but we’d be a very attractive option to championship players. we bounced straight back last time when our squad was so bad i didn’t even rate it much higher than most of the clubs in the league (with exception of Nolan). this time we’d just use our parachutes to pick off the best young ish english players like ipswich and saints are doing now.
West Ham should be looking at championship players now, and buying them and building them up. Gyokores was close to West Ham but they didn’t want to pay the money, when he was at Coventry.
But it’s not a sustainable model, Norwich are the prime example of it really, West Brom, they were clubs who took the bag and went down to come back up, and it doesn’t always work, it’s not an easy league. Regardless of club stature.
norwich had a uniquely bad prem side and even then they managed to come back the once under farke. WBA granted made a mess the first season back but their real mistake was appointing an utterly washed Bruce in the second year. had they had Corberan the whole time they’d have come back easily. it’s definitely not as easy as i’m making it seem but i’ve seen a lot of our fans make up hypotheticals where we get stuck in the championship and even league one and i just don’t think they are at all realistic. honestly i don’t even think we get relegated this year
I agree with you on all of that mate, but West Ham could be very much slip into that yo-yo club culture, especially given the gulf in class each year of what stays up and comes up, it’s getting harder and harder each year. West Ham would fall victim to that.
I can see peoples points, and I’d be very mindful of us being in the championship, I do think relegation is a real possibility, so long as the current regime is at the helm. They’ll only be happy to keep West Ham in the premier league, 17th is enough for them, but that’s a risky game now.
And my worry would be, take one look at who Sullivan last owned before West Ham, and what happened to them.
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One of the best games I’ve been to, was vs Blackpool and Lansbury had to go on goal. Kept a clean sheet and we won 4-1. Brilliant.
But I’d much rather us play Aston Villa on a Saturday
Maybe Southampton accepts we pay on easier installments for us??
He has his wrongs but I'm pretty sure Sullivan is at least good at that
Regardless of instalments. We were told that there’s no budget for FFP/PSR. The panic button has been hit now late in the window because they’re realised that it’s not enough
Told by who?
Take one simple look online, Bry, and you will see that the narrative is pushed by Sullivan himself.
He’s not hard to get quotes out of. Before you start taking high grounds, take one simple look online and do due diligence.
C’mon man
You sound like the flat earthers saying to do your own research
Please, please, for the love of god, take one look at The Athletic’s report, by Adrian Williams I think.
If you’re happy enough to call me a flat earther, just take one look at a respectable journalist who’s gone into detail on it. Thanks.
I'm mainly messing with you
I’m thick skinned enough to take it. That’s fine bud. But my comment is there for anyone else who will comment ‘tOlD by WhO?!’
The issue with PSR was always around flexibility next season when the Rice deal moving out of the 3 year window. Going up to around what PSR allows this season would force a net positive transfer balance next season (which would likely mean being forced to sell someone the club otherwise wouldnt want to like Bowen). But going to the championship is way worse from a "forced to sell players" perspective. Think the board finally saw that with the first few games
I think the board are rotten, and they could help out PSR concerns with injections (up to 35m a year) - but PSR is absolutely a concern with the spend last year. Even if good owners came in, we worked ourselves into a hole by spending a ton of money on players that dont fit together/fit different systems than the club tries to play
Saw an article this morning that were selling a stake in the women’s team if it’s valued at £55m and they’re selling a 49% stake then that’s £26.95m that they can count towards revenue. I don’t like it, but at least it’s external money coming in an not us selling to ourselves like Chelsea basically did.
This is the answer.
Yes. This is the shit these owners will pull instead of just selling the whole club for a bag of money to some entity with more bags of money. At this point I would take Elon or Bezos just to have ownership that can hire competent people.
As you've alluded to it's all bullshit that we couldn't spend money, they didn't want to spend money. Now that it looks a real possibility that we could go down suddenly we can spend. We are still run like a circus and always will be with Sullivan at the helm.
Here here.
Supposedly selling Rodriguez and Irving. Wouldn't be shocked to see Paq leave if we do sign 3 CMs as seems now possible.
Paq been told he’s not going anywhere, Potter will play him up top like he did against Wolves. Maybe next year, but Irving and Rodriguez won’t cash in more than 8m.
As I was saying.....
Aguerd going. Unless Villa pay 60m Paq ain’t going
We'll see. Romano reporting loan with £47m obligation almost agreed.
Insanely bad business again
I hope that is true. I don't trust Sullivan at all.
I think it will be next summer he’s gone, personally, but it makes me wonder where this extra money is coming from now, non of the reported players play a role like Paq. I don’t think he will go this summer, but I could be wrong.
I'm not sure it's actual psr Vs we can't have 10 midfielders on the books. I don't see the fees being an issue but sheer volume of players
It’s not FFP, it’s not PSR, the only acronym holding us back is GSB.
They’re just about to get an extra £22m for selling half the Women’s team too.
Hardly covers the Fernandes fee though.
Clubs very rarely pay the full fee up front, it’s done over multiple seasons.
It was always there. Sullivan thinks he playing 4d chess with statements like “we have to sell to buy”.
Think he’s on about his porn DVD collection, must be making room on the shelves
All of the deals will be spread over the length of the contracts. Probably smaller upfront fees and then the rest paid out over time.
There's money. We have some extremely rich people around this club and yet our finances seem to be being run by Trotter's Independent Traders.
How that many billionaires and people appear on international rich lists keep finding themselves right up to the limit of a structure/regulation that has been in place for a few years now is laughable.
Absolutely no idea of precedents and how clubs can have over 100 charges continually kicked down the road and yet all of a sudden we have a chairman who is petrified of the rules.
Had we won at least one of those three games, we'd have got Brownhill on a free and been forced to be happy with it.
We could sign the world and his wife and it still wouldn't fix the fundamental issues holding us back.
Well said mate…
We’ve an owner scared of opening his wallet. So long as he’s taking a pound note and that cow Brady too, they’re not bothered where this club is.
He’s panic will be seeing his billionaire status drop if we go down.
Football is a business and clubs should also be run like a business. But if there’s ’no money in the business’, how sustainable is the model?
Could be the saving on wages for Alverez and Kudos covers the salary for 3 or 4 new younger players.
3x midfielder signings cover more than the cost saved by kudus and Alvarez wages.
Looking at Capology and SalarySport,
Kudos was about £90k a week, Alveraz £100k. Split between 3 new signings would be around £65k each. Which would be the same amount as Cornet, Guildo or Antonio. Fernandes is only on about £20k at Southampton, providing they don't do a last minute panic offering stupid wages just to get a player in the door the amount will be less.
For reference the only players left on >£100k are Paq, Bowen, Nips, jwp and Kilman, we're not going to be paying those wages to a couple of 21 year olds.
I’d imagine Fernandes will at least double his salary, but then Magassa is coming in, there’s talks of Timber too. They won’t be on sofa change. West Ham will struggle to offload Cornet.
We’re also looking at Emerson going too, that’s probably 5m~ and wages, but it’s all well and good balancing the books of wages. Where’s this influx of transfer funds come from?
It's the same problem Newcastle and Villa have. They have the cash but because they don't have the revenue they can't spend it due to ffp.
We can't easily increase our revenues due to not owning the stadium and poor performance on the pitch. So we can't increase costs and still be within ffp. So the only option is cutting costs, in this case high player wages which were swapping for more lower player wages.
A big difference is Newcastle and Villa both have the option of having players other teams would spend big money on if they needed to balance the books. We don't.
I agree on that, that’s where the FFP/PSR comes into play, but, the bottom line is, and you’ve mentioned it, we’ve no assets, the board lines their own pocket with that money. The poor football falls at poor recruitment and poor running of the club, the lack of ambition, you have to spend money to accumulate money. Look at the assets Newcastle have, Bruno, Isak, Gordon, Barnes… who’ve West Ham got that could be sold on for a healthy profit? Bowen? Paqueta at a push? But you’d hardly make you millions on him.
There’s no ambition from the top to challenge for higher league positions, constant European football, it will always be to tread water. But, I will say, Villa and Newcastle’s expenditures vs West Ham, have been more reckless than ours. It will catch up, but West Ham always come cap in hand pleading poverty
Bet it means Paq will be sold last minute
I don’t think he will go this summer, most likely next. But I could be wrong….
I’m thinking (hoping, really) we have an agreement with him that since we stood by him through the trial we’ll sell him next year if he can get close to that valuation from man city by playing his heart out for us this season
I think he’s been told he’s not going this year, which he’s happy to see out. But watch this space for him next year if he’s been told that, there’d be unrest, he owes the club at least.
He will turn it on this season, 100%. Put himself in a shop window. Just hope he goes abroad or to Man City or somewhere.
The board.
Sullivan must have won the lottery or looked down the back of the couch.
Everyone that isn’t tied to the club in some way has said we are completely fine with PSR.
Probably says all that needs to be said about the club
It could potentially be that the board have become willing to take a PSR punishment if it means that we don't spaff away a ton of future revenue by getting relegated.
It could well be mate, who knows, time would tell on that. But would it be worth the risk of a points deduction? You’d have to be sitting comfortably top 10 to risk that, we’re just about keeping our heads above water
The Board took out 2 loans recently, one with Barclays and one with a company that also handled Everton's loan (cant remember the name now), against club facilities
The same Everton which got a points deduction for PSR/FFP.
Yes, the club took 140m loan from Barclays, that’s why they had to sell kudus, to repay the last loan they took on time.
Paqueta will go either now or January is the answer. None of this matters if we don’t sign a decent centre half anyway
I think he’s gone next summer, I don’t think he will go this window. But I could be wrong. Let’s see….
I think Fullkrug is fine, it’s the system and formation that doesn’t work.
The 3 at the back doesn’t work at all. Let’s hope some midfield bolster can hopefully change this, we’ve looked so poor there.
I’m not particularly happy about signing Southampton rejects, but I’d love to be proven wrong. We need signings. With this current system, we are headed for a big relegation battle.
Let’s see who else we get in, I’m okay with signing him at 21, he’s prem experience and was sought after by Juve and Atletico Madrid too, but I’m taking that at face value.
I agree, this system, the formation doesn’t work, I’m hoping, that by signing these players, the thinking is taking the next step beyond Potter. If he’s insistent on playing this formation, it will cost him his job and that’ll be on him, Sully can say he was backed and Potter will take the fall
I look back at the 2023 squad and we had a good core squad we should have splashed out then instead of here and there
By selling Paqueta (hope I'm wrong)
Apparently selling 49% of women’s team?
I also suspect we are banking on shifting Emerson, Guido and even Areola if John comes in on loan. Possibly Paqueta too. We also have a couple of new credit cards 😬
Not just sales that matter, it’s also wages.
Ings, Fabianski, Antonio, Zouma, Coufal, Cresswell, Alvarez, Kudus out
Wilson, Diouf, Walker Peters, Hermansen in
Think the wages aren’t an issue seeing as the ones who’ve come in are on a lot less than those who we’ve let go
That’s my point. Wages have to be under a certain % of revenue under PSR rules. Lowering the wage bill means more money to spend elsewhere
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Last I heard they was looking at Timber, as well as Magassa and Fernandes, but I’d be keeping Soucek, and Paqueta for now, none of the signings we are making fit his profile
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If Potter insists on playing the 3 at back, then Summerville, like Bowen, won’t be at their most effective. Paqueta can fit this system. But this 3-5-3 or 5-3-2, at times it looked like 8-1-1, doesn’t work, meaning Summerville and Bowen are out of position, I hope he reverts once these midfielders are signed
Perhaps the other side of the coin is that these and other transfer negotiations are always going on in the background; away from Press, Supporters and ITKs. ? Maybe out transfer business is just under the radar. IMO this just proves a great majority of the fan base and ITKs really have no idea. Or not.
It's come from the media asking questions of Sullivan.
It is why he needs to go.
It's easier to just realize you have no idea what the clubs financial situation is like and you're just lapping up whatever crap tidbit ex and other "itk"s are feeding you
I don’t subscribe to that clown what so ever, I think he’s a con artist. Thanks.
I mean, would you rather we didn’t spend?
They plead poverty every window and yet we end up spending. Football finances are weird. Remember that one time we sold Diangana because we needed cash, yet spent more on his replacement (Benrahma)?
I’d rather we spent mate, that’s not my point.
The line from the top is that there’s no money, but all of a sudden there is? I’m happy to see us step up and spend of course I am, it’s just a pisstake how late in the day it comes. It’s just tiring though isn’t it, the same story pushed every window.
Costs more to get relegated
tomomalono [OP] 14 points · Aug 2025 · Mark Noble
Exactly that