With the exception of those owned by state stealth, the vast majority of Barclays Premier League clubs are struggling to cope with the fiscal fall out generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and West Ham United are most definitely one of them! It could be worse though, and we shall go in to the details in more depth now.
Certain 'institutions' known for their fiscal countenance have been caught out by the Pandemic, none more so than West Ham's London neighbours Tottenham, who have been forced to take out an eye watering £1 Billion loan in order to cover the shortfall of income from the newly constructed stadium, no one anticipated the loss of revenue that would occur from non-football related events scheduled to run throughout the off season.
While having nowhere near the financial commitments of 'Lord' Levy's club, Hammers still have a fiscal 'black hole' to fill, and to that purpose, the bean counters have come up with a relatively 'clever' resolution. It is common knowledge that assets held by the banks yield a paltry return, so 'cash rich' investment companies, trust and hedge fund conglomerates are seeking ways to get a bigger bang for their bucks.
The Dell corporation, started in a little box room 40 years ago but now worth in excess of £5 Billion are the unlikely 'cavalry' coming to the aid of the Irons, well not exactly Dell, more like the trust fund set out by the founder to look after his family, but irrespective of the monies origins, a £100 Million rolling loan' facility has been established.
In a way it is a win win for all parties, the Dell trust gets 2.5 % annual interest, which is FIVE times more than they would receive from a bank, and West Ham get to borrow money 'on the cheap', thus removing the need to sell 'player assets'. This is a unique turn of events, and could herald the beginning of an era when West Ham finally manage to retain their best players without having to sell them on to balance the books.
Of course some conspiracy theorists will view this latest development as a pre-cursor to the eventual lifting of the stringent FFP rules that the club has hidden behind for too many years, whichever way you look at it though, David Moyes will have sufficient funding to add to his squad whilst retaining those he wishes to keep, he will also have the benefit of having a massively reduced wage bill, one that could be reduced even more substantially should he manage to 'move on' Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko and Winston Reid, their combined wages of over £300,000 per week have been crippling Moyes's attempts at completely overhauling the squad he has at his disposal. - Ed
