Thursday, May 08, 2008

West Ham Offer Ljungberg £3 Million for Contract

The Times are reporting this morning that West Ham have offered Freddie Ljungberg £3 million to tear up his contract with the club. The paper claims that he has three years remaining on the four-year contract - which ensures him £3.9 million a year at £75,000 a week.

The Times claim that West Ham could make similar compensation offers to Lucas Neill and Luís Boa Morte, stating that West Ham have been looking for a new right back to replace Neill.

7 Comments:

At 9:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

if they are asking him to revise his contract for less in order to strenghten the squad, i höpe he will accomodate the club. but, then again, that would only make sense, imho, if the club were to ask this of all of their big signings. everyone should pitch in on that front.

that said, i could not imagine most players, much less -any- player, being so selfless. nevertheless, i hope i'll be surprised.

 
At 10:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

None of this seems likely. It s wholly inconsistent with what the club has expressed several times recently about holding onto senior players.

Boa Morte has been seeing a lot action ,which again isn t consistent with the club looking to offload him. You cu dbe cynical , and say that he s only playing because of our long injury list ,but even that is not wholly true. Curbishley has chosen to play LBM when he s had other options, even taking injuries into account. So I don t buy the speculation on him.

As for Neill ,I think most wud agree that he has underperformed, and that the position of right back has been a problem for us this term. That said, the guy has been the captain this year ,and it doesn t quit e ring true that the club wud do an about face on him that quickly.

As for Ljungberg ,again it doesn t quite ring true. Why wud the club give up so quickly ,especially as his form has improved dramatically over the season. I m not buying his injury-prone status as an excuse, as the club knew that when it bought him.

Of the 3,it seems possible, though not likely ,that one of their contracts cud be bought out . As much as the club may ,allegedly ,be keen to cut its wage bill, the club,from a cash flow perspective ,is not in a position to do a series of contract buyouts either.

One caveat to all this is that these signings were made under the watch of Magnusson. Perhaps there is an element of truth to the theory that the current owner wasn t thrilled with the way in which Eggert handled player transfers ,and that this had something to do with Eggert s departure. But if that s the case ,then it wud follow that the owner wasn t too impressed with Curbishley either, as the manager obviously had a part in teh decision to buy these players. But the noises coming out of the club do not suggest an imminent sacking of Curbishley .

Overall, at a minimum , I think these reports grossly exaggerate what is likely to or may happen, and may be completely offbase. I think we re in for several months of wild,and fairly inaccurate speculation ,both from the gutter tabloids and even from some of the ,in theory, more reputable ones .

Truth doesn t sell papers- fiction does- especially when teh season is over and England are not involved in Euro 2008

 
At 10:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could it be a clearing of decks incase Sheff U win?

 
At 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the unlikely event of Sheffield United winning,it s hard to see West Ham not appealing and/or instigating countersuits of its own .

The likelihood of Sheffield United ever actually receieving a penny,even if they won an initial judgement here,strikes me as very low.

 
At 12:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shff Utd should never even be taking this action. It is not WHU fault that they did nnot get enough points. Any issue they have will be to the PL as they allowed WHU to continue with the contracts. PL have ruled that they were ok.

WHU should not even be involved in this and should seek to have all of the extortionate legal costs paid by Sheff U.

 
At 1:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

fully agree- cannot see how a compensation award cud now be granted to Sheffield,when all the previous tribunals ruled against Sheffield. To award them a claim now would in effect reverse or nullify all those previous decisions,which I can t see happening. And if such a claim were awarded to Sheffield, I cud then see the appeal process by West Ham on for years .

I think thats a very good shout, that West Ham should seek to reclaim the large legal costs that have been imposed upon the club by Sheffield pressing their case, not once, not twice, not 3 times, but 5 or 6 times. For Sheffield United to be allowed to persist in bringing these cases to courts and tribunals makes an absolute mockery of the justice system.

 
At 1:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with every word Portugal said. Spot on.

I can't believe all those weeks ago we bickered and I thought you were a bit of a plastic! ;-)

 

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