Will There Be Drama As Well As Benrahma?

West Ham United are expected to officially announce the signing of Said Benrahma from Brentford FC on a five year deal with an option for a further two years, there is some debate, as is often the case, over the fee and the ubiquitous add ons that are now part of 'big' transfer deals. So expect the fee to be described as 'undisclosed', this term is used to disguise a myriad of fiscal wranglings from all parties involved, including the player, who's wages are mooted to be anything between £45-60,000 per week, or around half the money the club were paying Jack Wilshere after he signed from Arsenal!

Why are the club waiting to announce the deal until later today? The answer is: SHIRTS, put simply with revenue from attended games removed from the fiscal equation, clubs throughout the Barclays Premier league are having to find ways to make up for the financial loss, so merchandising, particularly on the run up to Christmas, is of paramount importance with replica shirts being the top earner.

There is possibly one other reason the club is delaying it's announcement of Said's arrival, a reason that may have some fans licking their lips and others looking away in despair, there is still a possibility of a deal being completed for Josh King from Bournemouth. The state of play is Hammers turned their attention to acquiring Benrahma after seeing a £13 Million offer for King turned down by the Cherries, they stuck vehemently to their £18 Million appraisal which meant the deal was dead in the water, however King is now in the last year of his contract and as such is free to 'pre-negotiate' terms with other clubs for when his contract has runs down June.

If Bournemouth don't sell King before today's 5PM deadline, the only other option they will have to avoid the player leaving for absolutely nothing would be to sell him in the January transfer window, but by then his price will have dropped even further. It was only last January that King nearly made a £20 Million move to Manchester United, they elected to go pay the money to retain Odion Ighalo instead, that valuation was also pre-Covid-19 and as such would now be around £16 Million given the 40% reduction in players' values across the board.

So if Bournemouth don't sell King within the next eight hours they will essentially be kissing goodbye to £6 Million at the very least, players values fluctuate so much when contracts start to run down, and as we have seen are also affected by outside circumstances as well. For example, just before Brentord's play off final with Fulham, one which saw them narrowly fail to get promoted, Said Benrahma had a £75 Million price tag put on him by the Bees, Olly Watkins was valued at £55 Million, he of course move to Villa for £28 Million with an additional £5 Million in add ons.

Using Watkins as a 'scale of sale', if Moyes has managed to land Benrahma for £25 Million before the spurious add ons he will have done a very decent deal, if he can also land King as well, it would add some Drama as well as Benrahma! - Ed