EXCLUSIVE: Diame’s contract situation

Think back to summer and how underwhelmed we were when Mohamed Diame was announced as our big midfield summer signing.

 

Mo was on a free from Wigan Athletic- a guy with a well known heart problem -who in the light of a the Fabrice Muamba incident a little later could have been seen as a massive gamble rather than a brilliantly perceptive piece of transfer market business.

 

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With no transfer fee involved, WHUFC could offer to pay a player, who once interested Barcelona, £40k week. An accompanying escape clause of around £4 million didn’t seem a big deal given the health problems which had scared Barca off.

 

Since then of course Mo has taken Upton Park by storm and the fans –worried by some lazy newspaper reporting about Arsenal, Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers being interested – are fretting.

 

 

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Let me put the record straight. Arsenal aren’t interested, nor are Newcastle but club insiders are aware that the player’s agents – like all of them as the transfer window approaches – are running around trying to whip up interest in order to earn a fee. That’s par for the course.

 

The club hasn’t even received a fax from any club asking for a seat to be reserved for scouts. But we are West Ham so whenever we hear a story about one of our better players being linked with any club we reach for a change of trousers.

 

Let’s assume a false scenario – just for the sake of putting everybody’s mind at rest. Let’s pretend for a moment that old Harry Redknapp is keen and, I repeat, there’s been no enquiry.

 

 

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The Hammers – over the three years of his deal – are paying Mo wages of £5.7 million plus National Insurance contributions.

 

Another £5k is already on the table and were they to have to, the club may go another £10k on top of that to keep him at the club, thus pushing his wages to around £7 million.

 

To get him to QPR – not the most attractive proposition in the world right now – Redknapp and owner Tony Fernandes will need to find at least 60,000 a week plus a £5 million transfer fee – a package over three years of nearly £14 million. Then of course they’d need to find an agent’s fee.

 

And let’s remember the health issue (again) and the fact that until now the former Hammers boss has shown no interest in the player whatsoever at any of the clubs he has managed.

 

With only an increase in wages to worry about, the Hammers are in the driving seat in these negotiations and the odds are that Mo Diame will remain a Hammer into the forseeable future.

 

Every club in the country knows the issues involved with this player and in a football industry where money is as scarce as it’s ever been it might just be a good idea to stop over-analysing the issue.

 

He’s our player, we’re talking a new deal and if this were a poker game I’d sooner be holding our hand than anyone else’s.

 

 

Hugh Southon has reported the Hammers for 30 years on all national papers. Read him regularly at sportsdirectnews.com @SDN_sportsdirectnews Follow @hughsouthon