It’s no secret that West Ham have a massive window ahead of them. They need to bring in plenty of players in order to strengthen their squad and add depth. Unfortunately, with how relentless the Premier League is now being about breaches of financial regulations, money can’t be spent without serious thought.
Despite this, reports claimed that Tim Steidten and his team had an impressive £100 million to work this Summer, with any player sales adding to this. However, according to financial expert Kieran Maguire, the board may not be revealing the truth about how much they have to spend.
“To my complete surprise when I did this (EBITDA calculation), the four clubs with the highest return on EBITDA, first of all Arsenal, second Brentford, third West Ham and fourth Spurs,” he told the Price of Football podcast.
“And I thought Jesus Christ it is true, so London does have a premium. Why? Because you can charge more money for tickets, yes you’re having to pay some more money on wages, so that really took me back.”
Now, if this is the case, this leaves two distinct possibilities as to why the board aren’t willing to
reveal the true amount they can spend. Firstly, there’s the idea that if they keep their cards close to their chest they may be able to get better deals when negotiating. The second possibility is simply that they don’t want to fork up the full amount they could spend.
If the latter is what’s happening then it’s completely unforgivable. This is the one chance the club has to get things right. If they rebuild the squad properly it could see West Ham become European regulars, if they don’t then it could be disastrous and see everything they’ve been building over the past four or five years crumble before their eyes.
At the end of the day, football is a business but if they truly want to maximise long term profits the owners have got to spend money to make money. All we can do is hope that they make the right decision.
