West Ham United’s young midfielder Sead Haksabanovic is on a contract which breaks the club’s typical wage structure, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable Hammers news source claims that the Montenegro international was signed to a £15,000-per-week contract when he joined the club in 2017.
It has emerged that the 20-year-old was forced on the Hammers by agent Will Salthouse, who insisted that the east London outfit signed the player if they wanted to also bring in Marko Arnautovic.
And Haksabanovic’s wages broke what the Irons typically like to pay youth players. Claret & Hugh also reported on Saturday that manager Manuel Pellegrini has now decided that the youngster has no future at the club.
OPINION
This is just a bizarre story all round. We have heard before of agents forcing another player onto clubs as part of their deal to sign the player they really want, as Salthouse seemingly did, here. Presumably they do it to enhance their own payout, as agents do. It’s strange that West Ham would have willingly broken their pay structure for a youngster they never really rated, though. All the talk around the club at the moment with young midfielder Conor Coventry is that the Hammers don’t want to pay him more than what they have established is the maximum for a youth player: £5,000. Yet Haksabanovic, who they didn’t even want, is currently earning triple that amount. The Montenegrin is currently out on loan at Swedish side Norrköping, where he has scored eight goals and grabbed eight assists in 34 games [Source: Transfermarkt]. However, that’s clearly not been enough for Pellegrini, who is ready to get rid of him at the earliest opportunity after just two first team appearances [Source: Transfermarkt].
