David MoyesWest Ham now have £133m summer transfer budget after Declan Rice sale and it’s time to start spending it
West Ham now have a £133m summer transfer budget after the Declan Rice sale and it’s time to start spending it.
West Ham have confirmed the long, drawn out Declan Rice saga is finally over as the Hammers captain is sold to Arsenal for a British record £105m.
West Ham will get £100m paid in three instalments of just over £33m over the next 24 months.
The other £5m in add-ons are less assured as they will be a £1m payment each time Arsenal qualify for the Champions League and Rice starts 60 per cent of the matches – capped at £5m.
It was claimed last month that West Ham’s transfer budget this summer would be the money from the Rice deal and any other sales.
The likes of Nikola Vlasic and – according to persistent rumours – Gianluca Scamacca could also be sold to add to that.
But with the Rice money alone and the nature of deal – with the first tranche of £33.3m wired to West Ham today – the Hammers can start looking bringing players in.
West Ham now have £133m summer transfer budget after the Rice sale and it’s time to start spending it.
Fans have been concerned the lack of transfer activity from the club was an indication there were financial problems against the backdrop of the Hammers being on UEFA’s FFP watchlist.
But yesterday board confidant Sean Whetstone dismissed those fears saying there is ‘no problem’.
David Moyes has said he has had to wait for the Rice money before he can start making signings of his own – which confirms his budget this summer is confined to money raised from player sales.
It must be remembered – as pointed out on Hammers News yesterday – that while the £33.3m initial payment from Rice may not sound a huge amount, West Ham will only be putting small initial payments down – as is the norm in standard transfers – for the £20-40m players they will be targeting.
The rest of the payments – in a normal transfer – will be spread across the length of the contract.
So the first tranche of money from the Gunners will open the door to multiple potential signings for West Ham.
And Whetstone has taken to Twitter to highlight the same thing.
“Although we are getting our £100m over two years if we can insist paying over four years for our new players we can make that money go further so £33.3m turns into a £133m budget, I am sure there will be other departures that will add to that,” he said.
West Ham fans are now hoping the club has prime targets lined up and ready to go.
In that regard we believe no news is surely good news for West Ham, especially regarding a consistently linked trio.
