Hammers fans won’t believe what Sean Whetstone has just said about West Ham’s summer transfer window budget.
Earlier this month Hammers News suggested fans may have been fed a £100m red herring.
At the end of last month, a prominent West Ham insider claimed the club’s transfer budget would be around £100m.
And that any further funds from sales would be added to the kitty.
West Ham also confirmed to Hammers News this weekend that Max Kilman is one of a number of players the Hammers want.
That’s after making Luis Guilherme the club’s first signing of the Julen Lopetegui era for around £20m plus £5m in potential add-ons.
A budget of £100m may sound a lot. But given West Ham require another seven players it averages out at around £13-15m per signing.
Some fans believe Tim Steidten needs to be given more money to spend in order to help Lopetegui have West Ham competing for the European spots.
Are West Ham being savvy over publicised budget?
It has not gone unnoticed that West Ham are on course to announce record profits of over £360m in their next set of accounts.
And prominent football finance expert Kieran Maguire recently revealed the Hammers are ranked third in the Premier League in terms of the best EBITDA.
The term EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation and is a standard of financial measurement used to judge a business’ performance.
Only Arsenal and Brentford in the Premier League have a better EBITDA score than West Ham according to Maguire.
West Ham are even ahead of rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
With that as background, combined with the record turnover and a strong wages-to-turnover position, it means West Ham looked well placed to prove Gary Neville’s prediction that they would be among the biggest spenders this summer correct.
Fans won’t believe what Whetstone has said about budget
That brings us back to the red herring suggestion. Hammers News’ theory being that West Ham likely have more to spend than they’re letting on. By design. With the obvious intention to ensure the Hammers do not overpay for signings.
Well a top David Sullivan confidant has taken to social media to deliver an update.
And fans won’t believe what Sean Whetstone has just said about West Ham’s budget.
The Hammers insider rightly points out that West Ham have raised around £11m towards their kitty through the sales of Nathan Trott and Thilo Kehrer.
But Whetstone claims the Hammers now have just £51.5m left to spend following the Guilherme capture.
“Outbound sales of Kehrer to Monoco for £9.3m and Trott to Coppehagen for £1.7m have raised £11m of transfer funds for this summer, this will be added to around £60m budget of which £19.5m has been spent on Luis Guilherme leaving around £51.5m transfer budget remaining,” Whetstone said on X.
Claim means just £8.5m per signing as things stand
Yes goalkeeper Wes Foderingham is coming in on a free as one of the seven other signings.
But £51.5m will not go far on six players. That’s an average of just £8.5m per signing.
Steidten may be good, but that would be asking him to work a minor miracle.
Said Benrahma will raise another £12.3m if and when his move to Lyon goes through.
And of course Nayef Aguerd, Kurt Zouma, Flynn Downes and others will boost the fund further if sold.
That should be in addition to a base budget of around £100m, though, not £60m.
Especially when you consider the rude health of the club’s finances.
Many supporters will understandably be incensed by the update.
They can only hope it is a case of the club playing down what is available for the reasons stated above.
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