West Ham have the financial capacity to spend more again in January if Julen Lopetegui and Tim Stiedten feel they need further reinforcements.
That’s the view of both football finance expert Kieran Maguire and Hammers insider Sean Whetstone, who have been discussing the club’s financial position this week.
Whetstone recently told Claret and Hugh that the club is expected to publish a record £365m turnover for last season, with the accounts set to be published before the turn of the year.
The £100m sale of Declan Rice, a top-half Premier League finish and a run to the Europa League quarter-finals will have boosted that handsomely.
As a result, the club isn’t likely to be close to breaching PSR rules, despite spending over £155m on transfers last summer.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Manchester City’s recent case against the Premier League over Associated Party Transactions, the club is also unaffected by the outcome, due to there being no outstanding director’s loans being owed to the club’s top brass.
Meanwhile, Maguire backed up Whetstone’s claims regarding the club’s financial health, by suggesting the club has score to spend more money.
In an exclusive chat with Hammers News, he said: “I suspect West Ham will be recording record turnover for the 2023/2024 season.
“It was £237m for the 2022/2023 season, which was the second highest in the history of the club.
“There’s certainly scope to increase that with the participation in the Europa League.
“The sale of Declan Rice really shouldn’t be treated as turnover as such but it’s likely to provide a £100m plus profit, which will certainly assist the club in respect of PSR.
“West Ham have no concerns with regards to this even if assume that the wages have gone up modestly – and West Ham have kept tight control over wages. There’s effectively been no increase since 2019 and 2023.
“So putting all those things together I think there’s certainly scope to spend more money. We did see that of course in the summer and it will be interesting to see what the club’s strategy is when it comes to the next window.”
Will Stiedten and Lopetegui continue to build on their project?
Whether or not this means we’re going to see more transfer activity remains to be seen, but it’s encouraging to know that if we do need to dip our toes in the market for winter reinforcements, it’s not going to be a major issue.
It will, of course, depend on what happens between now and January. If we have a number of injury issues or Lopetegui identifies an area of his squad that needs to be addressed urgently, then we may well see some activity.
But if things continue to improve as they are, the squad remains free of any major issues or injuries and Lopetegui is generally pleased with the progress, then we may well experience yet another very quiet January transfer window, which we became used to during David Moyes’ time at the club.
And obviously, January is notoriously a difficult time to do business, with teams mostly unwilling to part ways with their best players midway through a season.
What we don’t want to see is the club spending for the sake of it. It would be far more preferable if we remained cautious in our business and only signed players who will ultimately improve the squad, not just fill a gap for short period.
Moyes was notorious for this approach, even though it was incredibly frustrating when it was so obvious almost every January that we needed more players. He essentially refused to buy a striker for the sake of buying one, and often opted to stick with what he had instead.
Looking back, it was a sensible approach. It’s allowed for the club to maintain a healthy and consistent wage bill as well as enter its most successful financial period to date.
