Vlasic-Truth About Money Paid Or Not!

Nikola Vlasic looks to be ending his ill fated Premier League return by moving to Serie A and Torino, initially on loan but with a non obligatory option to buy after one season. On the face of it Torino only paying £2.1 Million to cover part of Vlasic’s wages and a full transfer price IF Torino want to make the deal permanent of only £12.6 Million is appalling business by West Ham and David Moyes, how ever this being West Ham things are rarely as straight forward as they seem.

Moyes 'authorised' bringing Vlasic to West Ham for £26.8 Million from CSKA Moscow last year, BEFORE Russia unlawfully invaded the Ukraine, following the invasion FIFA and UEFA sanctioned the Russian Football Federation by effectively cancelling the contracts of players who were signed to Russian clubs allowing them to leave for free to seek 'lawful' employment away from Russia.

Now anyone with the slightest knowledge of how Hammers generally do their transfer business, especially 12 months go, before Rob Newman took over as technical director of player transfers, will know that the club invariably pay over a lengthy period of time for players, as do many other teams.

As far as we know Vlasic's transfer fee was to be paid in instalments over a period of THREE years, Russia invaded the Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022 and various sanctions including UEAFA's were swiftly put in place which meant that West Ham would have been breaking the law if they paid CSK Moscow ANY more money!

Manna from heaven for David Sullivan and perhaps one of the reasons Moyes has appeared very relaxed when discussing the options regarding Vlasic, from what we have been told from a very reliable source is that the Irons have only made ONE payment towards Vlasic's overall fee and that was for €4 Million (just under £3.4 Million).

Furthermore the club hope to have sold Vlasic permanently before there is a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, therefore the buying club would have to deal with the fall out caused by the conflict and not West Ham! All in all the signing of Vlasic was a strange one and has all the hall marks of a 'jilted John' situation caused by the protracted Jesse Lingard on off 'romance' with the club.

Vlasic failed when he was in the Premier League as a youngster while at Everton, his tenure at West Ham on his return to the Prem has been little short of disastrous so moving to Serie A seems a good choice for a very likeable but ultimately failed footballer, that doesn't mean that he cannot 'rip it up' in Italy and we are sure that most fans wish him well for the future.

Just don't believe the numbers being quoted! - LN