West Ham United have PSR get out of jail free card as Aston Villa comparison made
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has explained how West Ham United could avoid possible PSR sanctions in the future.
The Hammers are spending big in the transfer market. Big money has been spent to bring the likes of Luis Guilherme, Max Kilman, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug to the club.
Finance Expert Kieran Maguire explained in a chat with TBR Football (7 August) that the sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal a year ago is helping to ease any PSR concerns much like Aston Villa selling Jack Grealish to Manchester City in August 2021 did.
“From a PSR point of view, they have a Declan Rice-shaped get out of jail free card for the next three years, exactly as we have seen with Jack Grealish at Aston Villa,” he said.
“While there is very much a focus on the current market with regards to player trading, I always look at the small print of the financials.
“West Ham have spent a lot of money. In 2022-23, they spent £184million. An awful lot of that was buying players on credit. Therefore, at the end of 2022-23, they had outstanding player payables of £171million.
“That is a drain on resources. If you maxed out on your credit card last year, that impacts on what you can spend on your credit card this year.
“This issue is always forgotten by fans. People have very short memories.
“While they have money coming in from the next instalments of Rice, I suspect they still have a net payable in terms of transfers. That is where my concern is in terms of cash flow.”
Do West Ham have an issue?
There’s always been an expectation that there will be sales to offset the spending and they have brought in money on the balance sheets now that the likes of Said Benrahma and Thilo Kehrer have departed full time, while Flynn Downes has also joined Southampton.
Right now, of course, the primary focus is on bringing in new faces. Julen Lopetegui doesn’t appear to be too concerned and, as of this writing, there’s no reason to think there would be any kind of PSR concern.
With that being said, they do need to be careful. This is the kind of free-spending we saw from the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle United in recent years. The good news, of course, is that the Hammers seem to be an incredibly well-run football club right now.
It’s important they don’t lose sight of that. London Stadium was a great move for them, David Moyes did wonderful things for the club, and now, they have an ambitious manager who is willing to spend big in order to take them back to the big time.
There are bound to be growing pains. Still, if they can find the right balance, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more incomings in the weeks ahead.
In other West Ham news, Hammers target Youssouf Fofana has had his priority transfer shared.
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