West Ham United’s firm stance on Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal was truly admirable

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Czech Republic international duo Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal made unbelievable starts to their respective West Ham United careers.

Unfortunately for the experienced Hammers pair though, their performances have fallen off badly over the past 12 months or so.

Soucek, 27, has dramatically regressed whilst Coufal, 30, looks like an absolute shadow of the player who burst onto the scene at the London Stadium two years ago.

West Ham signed Soucek from Slavia Prague on a permanent deal for around £15 million in July 2020 (The Daily Mail), after he spent five months on loan at the London Stadium.

Coufal was brought to the Hammers for around £4 million just a few months later (The Sun).

Both players made such promising starts to life at West Ham. They looked like incredibly good value for money signings.

However, Soucek and Coufal have regressed so badly over the past year, and now look like they shouldn’t be anywhere near a team who are challenging for the European places.

And the Hammers owners must be applauded for the stance they took when whispers suggested that both players were demanding new deals…

West Ham owners played a blinder with Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal

Soucek demanded a big pay rise at the end of last season but was told that he wasn’t deserving of one at that time, according to The Guardian. Meanwhile, Football.London claim that the same thing happened with Coufal at the end of 2021.

It would have been so easy to cave in to their demands on the back of impressive first seasons at the London Stadium.

Coufal’s current deal expires at the end of this season, although the club have the option to extend that contract by a further two years.

Meanwhile, Soucek is out of contract in the summer of 2024, with West Ham holding the option to extend that deal by another 12 months.

So essentially, both players’ contracts expire in the summer of 2025. Bearing that in mind, there is absolutely no need to offer either of them new and improved contacts, and certainly not if they fail to improve.

If Soucek and Coufal do produce the goods consistently between now and the end of the season then of course, they will be deserving of new deals. Let’s just see how it pans out until then though.

And if Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal continue to struggle, we think it will be wise to move both of them on from the London Stadium in the summer.

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