West Ham United have put contract talks with talented young midfielder Conor Coventry on hold until next summer, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable Hammers news source claims that the 19-year-old’s representatives have been demanding more than double the salary that the east London outfit are willing to pay.
No progress on a new deal for the teenager has been made in recent times, prompting the Irons to take the decision to postpone talks until the end of the season.
By doing so they run the risk of Coventry leaving for nothing when his current contract expires at the end of June. Coventry has been offered £2,500-per-week, the highest amount West Ham pay developmental players, and they refuse to go above that amount.
OPINION
Clearly West Ham are unwilling to budge on their existing pay structure. They have learned their lesson from paying Reece Oxford way over the odds after just a few decent performances for the senior team, and we know how that turned out. So they don’t want to give Coventry £5,000-per-week when he hasn’t even made a Premier League appearance for the Hammers yet. Really, Coventry’s representatives are simply being greedy. They want to get the maximum for themselves and their client, but they’re not being at all realistic here. £2,500-per-week is a fantastic amount of money for anyone, and it is also a terrific sum for somebody who hasn’t made his first team breakthrough yet. Once he does he would undoubtedly be given a better deal by the club, as Declan Rice was, yet his people want more than the aforementioned amount already. What they’re asking for simply isn’t realistic, and it’s no surprise that the Irons aren’t budging on this.
