Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has made a £575m West Ham revelation that will leave fans in shock and disbelief.
West Ham raised eyebrows by shipping out Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma after the winter window deadline.
Fornals is believed to have been sold for around £5-7m to Real Betis. Meanwhile Lyon confirmed they are paying the Hammers a £5.1m loan fee for Benrahma with a £12.3m option to buy in the summer.
The view from many is that it was typical of West Ham failing to get decent money for players compared to many of their rivals.
“West Ham have always been terrible at selling players”
With the exception of the £105m sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal in the summer, West Ham fans feel their club is historically terrible at getting good fees for players.
Marko Arnautovic was one of the most feared all-action strikers around when he was sold to mega rich China for just £22.5m.
Dimitri Payet was a Ballon D’Or nominee as he lit up the Premier League with West Ham. But the Hammers sold him for just £25m back to Marseille. West Ham’s hands were tied to some degree in both cases.
But they could have got double that for Arnautovic and perhaps even triple for Payet.
Don’t even get started on the paltry fees fetched for some of the golden generation. Just £6m for Joe Cole, a similar fee for Jermain Defoe from Spurs. And just £3.5m for Michael Carrick from the same club. Criminal.
Maguire’s £575m West Ham revelation that’ll shock fans
The Hammers took a £25m hit on Sebastien Haller after just 18 months. And a near £10m reduction on Gianluca Scamacca after just one season.
Shocking business that many Hammers fans would feel is “par for the course”. But perception doesn’t match reality it seems.
Because Kieran Maguire has made a £575m West Ham revelation that will leave fans in shock.
Football finance expert Maguire has lifted the lid on which clubs have been the most successful at selling players in the history of the Premier League.
And the Hammers – believe it or not – sit eighth having made £575m in player sales since the Premier League’s inception in 1992.
That is more than the likes of Brighton, Leicester and Southampton who have all had spells of making huge money from a clutch of player sales over the last couple of decades.
Hammers eighth of 51 in Prem history when it comes to player sales
West Ham have also made more than Newcastle, Aston Villa. There have been 51 clubs that have participated in the Prem since its inception in 1992.
And the Hammers have raised more money in player sales than 42 of them.
“Lots of argument on Twitter in relation to which clubs are successful at selling players, so here are the definitive figures from the accounts,” Maguire said alongside a video charting the totals from 1992 to present day. You can see it in the post below.
Chelsea lead the way with a staggering £1.43bn made in player sales.
West Ham finally got some value for money when they sold Rice to the Gunners.
Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard commanded excellent fees for their time, totalling £33m.
Ferdinand’s £18m sale to Leeds was a world record for a defender at the time.
Ferdinand’s brother Anton and George McCartney raised a surprisingly sizeable £16m combined.
West Ham also somehow managed to fetch £20m from Swansea to take Andre Ayew back. While Fulham paid around £15m for Issa Diop.
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