West Ham United have been given a major boost in their bid to gatecrash the Premier League’s elite.
West Ham have showed increased ambition with the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini.
The Hammers spent £100million last summer and have already splashed around £24million on exciting Spain international Pablo Fornals this window.
More arrivals are expected as Pellegrini looks to build on last term’s comfortable 10th place finish.
New ambition sees West Ham backed for top six
West Ham have been backed to challenge for the top six next season by a host of pundits and former players.
Hammers legends Tony Cottee and Tony Gale have both tipped their old club to challenge for one of the top six spots (Sky Sports).
So too has talkSPORT presenter Adrian Durham.
Now the club – along with the likes of Everton and Wolves – has been given a major boost in their quest to do just that with the relaxation of Financial Fair Play rules.
According to The Mirror, the Premier League have scrapped part of the FFP rules which will allow clubs to spend bigger this summer.
Removing the shackles?
And crucially it could help the likes of West Ham compete with the elite as the changes will remove a cap on wages.
The Short Term Cost Control part of the FFP rule was brought in to stop clubs blowing all of their TV budget on player wages.
But it will be scrapped after six years in which it was often claimed it gave the top six a major advantage.
The rule was perceived to have helped the likes of Manchester United and co as they could cover any losses with money-spinning commercial deals which were easy for them to broker compared to ambitious middling teams like West Ham.
The STCC capped the amount clubs could raise their wage bill each year but now that has been removed so the likes of West Ham, Wolves and Everton can spend more to attract players to break into the top six.
However, the other existing part of the Premier League’s FFP rules – meaning clubs cannot report a loss in excess of £105m over a three year period – remains in place.
Opening a can of worms?
Whether that means West Ham will start offering players crazy wages to sign them ahead of other teams remains to be seen.
Although it may help relax the purse strings for Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Husillos as they look to get a deal for Maxi Gomez over the line.
One player who will probably want to take advantage of it is Marko Arnautovic.
The Austrian has reportedly handed in a transfer request as he chases a lucrative move to China (Sky Sports).
Of course conversely it could also cause a myriad of problems as players fight for a bigger slice of the pie.
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