Fans have been venting at West Ham’s owners as they continue to claim the club is at its PSR limit ahead of a crucial summer transfer window.
The Hammers’ billionaire co-owners David Sullivan and Daniel Kretinsky have been coming under fire from fans over finances.
West Ham have put on record they want to sign at least five players this summer.
That is the bare minimum Graham Potter will need, even if he has stated he wants to trim what he feels is a bloated squad of 26 senior players for a team not competing in Europe.
Potter says it is impossible to foster a close-knit team spirit at West Ham with so many players not getting regular game time.
But the rebuild needed this summer is still going to cost a fair amount of money.
So Hammers supporters have been up in arms as the board continue to plead poverty due to Profit and Sustainability Rules.
Particularly given the fact West Ham enjoyed record turnover in the not-too-distant past.
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And especially since it’s been less than two years the club sold Academy graduate Declan Rice for a pure 100 per cent £105m profit.
The Hammers hierarchy has been preparing supporters – and the manager – for a difficult summer window for some time now.
Photo by Kevin Hodgson | MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Kevin Hodgson | MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Potter says it’s going to be an ‘exciting and interesting’ summer window – which opens for three months from Sunday.
But it has been consistently stated by West Ham that they must sell before they can buy.
It has not been lost on Hammers fans that several rival clubs are already making big moves in the transfer market.
Much to West Ham’s detriment as they look set to miss out on midfielder Ardon Jashari and strikers Emanuel Emegha and Evann Guessand.
West Ham’s owners revealed they are trying to move players on so they can ‘start trading’ in a major update this week.
The water was muddied over West Ham’s finances when the Hammers confirmed they made a £57m bid for Jhon Duran in the winter window.
The Hammers have since clarified the Duran bid and spending plans, admitting they were trying to sign him with a view to then making sales and that they didn’t appreciate how bad the financial situation would be.
Prominent transfer journalist David Ornstein called West Ham’s bluff about PSR, suggesting the club are feeding fans something of a red herring over finances.
Ornstein stated he’s not aware of any reason PSR would be an issue for the Irons and that he expected the club to be busy this summer.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has also cast doubt on the situation being as bad as the board are projecting.
Maguire described West Ham’s PSR claims as ‘odd’.
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Now cash-strapped West Ham have been given a shock new ranking on a European rich list and it raises big questions.
The Hammers have proudly trumpeted the fact the club is regularly among the top 17 in the Deloitte Money League of world football.
Now the Football Benchmark Group has published its 10th annual Football Clubs’ Valuation: The European Elite report.
The Premier League’s superior financial muscle has been highlighted by the new report, with nine of the top 20 coming from England.
The Football Clubs’ Valuation report ranks the top 32 clubs in Europe by enterprise value, which is the total value of a club’s equity plus its net debt.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or football expert to figure out that Real Madrid sit top of the table having burst through the €6bn (£5bn) mark this year.
They are almost £1bn clear of Manchester City in second place, with Manchester United not far behind their rivals.
As West Ham continue to bang the drum that the well is dry and the cupboards are bare, the club has been ranked at 16th on the list.
That’s bang in the middle of the top 32 clubs in all of Europe in terms of total value of equity plus its net debt.
West Ham have a total value of a club’s equity plus its net debt of £980m – ahead of Serie A champions Napoli, Eintracht Frankfurt and Premier League rivals Aston Villa (19th, £750m) and Everton (20th, £560m).
Top 20 of 32 clubs in Europe by enterprise value
Rank Club Value
1 Real Madrid £5.22bn
2 Manchester City £4.24bn
3 Manchester United £4.20bn
4 Barcelona £3.71bn
5 Bayern Munich £3.56bn
6 Liverpool £3.50bn
7 Arsenal £3.33bn
8 PSG £3.13bn
9 Tottenham £3.04bn
10 Chelsea £2.51bn
11 Borussia Dortmund £1.94bn
12 Atletico Madrid £1.56bn
13 AC Milan £1.50bn
14 Inter £1.43bn
15 Juventus £1.38bn
16 West Ham £980m
17 Napoli £910m
18 Eintracht Frankfurt £810m
19 Aston Villa £750m
20 Everton £560m
The Football Clubs’ Valuation report lists the total value of a club’s equity plus its net debt
The report will only further add to the scepticism and cynicism surrounding West Ham’s PSR claims.
Fans have asked how extremely financially savvy business people such as Sullivan, mega rich Kretinsky – who is worth over £13bn – and vice-chair Karren Brady, can allow things to get so bad.
It is why many feel this may be a smoke and mirrors attempt from the Hammers to go about their transfer business differently.
Essentially by playing down their budget so as not to be taken advantage of by selling clubs when doing deals.
If that is the case then it’s certainly a clever move, even if it is leading to some discontent among the fanbase.
What we do know is that the truth will out as the summer unfolds.