West Ham United received what is being described as a ‘sizeable’ loan fee from Porto for winger Felipe Anderson.
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That’s according to insiders Claret & Hugh, who have close links to West Ham co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold.
West Ham boss David Moyes has seen his already disjointed squad whittled down to just 20 senior players.
It comes after the departures of Anderson, Jack Wilshere, Josh Cullen, Xande Silva and five others since the end of June.
Only one new player has arrived, Vladimir Coufal.
Moyes left with just 20 senior players after Anderson departure
Sullivan recently told talkSPORT West Ham have a transfer budget of £40million.
With the £1m from Anderlecht for Cullen minus the £5m for Coufal, it leaves Moyes with around £36m to spend on Championship players before the domestic window closes next Friday.
West Ham’s business – or lack of it – has infuriated fans.
Many criticised the fact West Ham’s owners elected to loan out their second most expensive ever signing with no return.
But not only did the Hammers get Anderson’s £100k per week wages off the books – a total annual saving of around £4.8m – they also received a ‘sizeable loan fee’ according to Claret & Hugh.
Insiders close to owners claim Hammers got ‘sizeable’ loan fee for Brazilian
“Porto FC are understood to picking Anderson’s wages though to be excess of £100,000 per week plus a sizable loan fee,” Claret & Hugh state.
The West Ham insiders then repeated the claim in another article when addressing Anderson’s future beyond this season.
“We understand there is no option for a permanent deal involved in the arrangement despite the Hammers receiving a large loan fee and with Porto ready to pay the 27-year-old’s wages,” Claret & Hugh added.
What that loan fee is we don’t know.
But for top players they tend to range between £2.5m and £5m.
Extra money for the kitty on top of another £4.8m wages saving
So if you take a median figure as a guesstimate Moyes should have around £40m to spend before the EFL deadline.
Coupled with the vast savings in weekly wages from all the departures this summer and West Ham have no excuses not to add some quality additions from the second tier.
Goodness knows Moyes needs them. Just one or two injuries to players in the spine of the team would put West Ham in serious danger.
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