West Ham are starting to see why most clubs like to have some sort of wage structure in place. Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen is stalling over an £80,000 a week offer from the Hammers because he wants £100,000. It would be easy to blame the ex-Chelsea man and accuse him of greed, but if I was a player of Gudjohnsen’s class I would want to be a few leaps up the salary scale away from £60,000 a week Lucas Neill!
I suspect in a few years West Ham fans will spit the name Eggert Magnusson in the same way that Leeds fans talk of Peter Ridsdale. Suppose it gets to the stage when the Hammers can attract a genuine world class player (and legally this time!). How much would you pay him when your bog standard centre-back is earning more than most Premier League strike partnerships put together? And as Newcastle have recently shown, clubs are now introducing ‘Chelsea’ prices for West Ham. People know they have money to spend and they are not afraid to hold them to ransom. Is this living the dream?
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