West Ham United are currently locked in extremely difficult contract agents with the representatives of young midfielder Conor Coventry, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable Hammers news source claims that discussions have been ongoing with the Under-23s star for quite some time, but that little progress has been made.
The east London outfit feel that Coventry’s representatives are asking for personal terms that are far too high for a player without a Premier League appearance.
West Ham are thought to have learned from paying starlet Reece Oxford £20,000-per-week after just a few games, and are refusing to be held to ransom by Coventry’s team as a result.
OPINION
Claret & Hugh’s report states that Coventry signed a two year extension last year, which will obviously expire at the end of the season. With that said, the fact that no breakthrough has been made in these talks is concerning in the extreme. The club obviously want to keep the 19-year-old at the London Stadium, but they are wary of making the same mistake that they did with Oxford. You don’t want to give a young player too much too soon because it can have a negative effect on them, which is what happened with the now-Augsburg man. At the same time, you don’t want top young players who could be future first team stars to slip through the net. It’s a difficult one, it really is. West Ham obviously got it wrong with Oxford, but they played things perfectly with Declan Rice. The England international is now arguably the team’s best player, but they didn’t open the chequebook for him straight away . It’s a balancing act, and so we’ll see if more progress is made with Coventry in the coming months.
