There is one big and pretty obvious reason why Manchester United and West Ham have fallen so far down the Premier League table in recent years.
In the blinking of an eye, West Ham splurged £170 million combined on Niclas Fullkrug, Nikola Vlasic, Crysencio Summerville, Maxwel Cornet, Gianluca Scamacca, Luis Guilherme and Danny Ings.
Vlasic and Scamacca played only one season of Premier League football in claret and blue. Cornet is now on loan at Genoa. Forgotten man Danny Ings is set to be released, alongside Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski and Aaron Cresswell.
And Luis Guilherme – a £25 million addition from Palmeiras – has started as many top-flight matches this term as back-up utility man Andy Irving.
Man United, meanwhile, have endured their own struggles in the transfer market. In fact, since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement over a decade ago, the number of unqualified successes to make Old Trafford home can probably be counted on one hand.
Paying over the odds to bring players in is one thing. Another issue which tends to arise, as both Man United and West Ham United have found out the hard way, is that moving on from high-earning, underperforming players brings its own set of challenges.
West Ham made a considerable loss on Vlasic. Cornet will depart too for much less than the £17 million they forked out to Burnley. Ings, meanwhile, joined for £15 million, scored only four league goals, and will leave for nothing.
Speaking ahead of the Europa League final between Man United and Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao, meanwhile, former Red Devil and one-time Hammer Rio Ferdinand highlights Harry Maguire’s aborted switch to the London Stadium in 2023 as a prime example of the self-imposed issues at Old Trafford.
Rio Ferdinand explains why Harry Maguire to West Ham United did not happen
West Ham agreed to sign Harry Maguire for a fee of £30 million two years ago.
Though, as it turned out, Maguire was happy to fight for his place at Manchester United rather than embark on a fresh start under David Moyes.
Furthermore, as The Sun would later explain, another major reason for the deal collapsing was that Maguire and Man United could not agree on an eye-watering £15 million severance package.
The former Leicester City, Hull and Sheffield United man was due a considerable sum due to the fact that his switch to West Ham would have resulted in a £70,000-a-week pay cut.
“That is the biggest problem. [Man United’s players are on] massive wages,” Ferdinand explains. “This is back to recruitment, contracts, they are giving out massive contracts where players are going, ‘I can’t afford to leave!’.
“Harry Maguire is a great example. [For example], if he’s on £220-a-week, and West Ham were going ‘We are capping it at £120 [a week]’, that is £100,000-a-week he is out of profit.
“No man in their right mind is saying ‘Yeah, that’s me’. They are sitting down and [thinking] I will ride this wave.”
Maguire explained Manchester United stay after Hammers talks
Two years on, while Man United’s slide towards the bottom end of the Premier League has been staggering to witness, Ruben Amorim’s side are still only 90 minutes away from a return to the Champions League. A seat at Europe’s top table is the prize awaiting the winner of Wednesday’s Europa League final.
Maguire, meanwhile, has played a massive role in the journey to Bilbao. Most memorably, with his extra-time winner in the 5-4 classic against Lyon.
Maguire described West Ham as a ‘massive’ club when reflecting on that transfer saga, while refuting suggestions that the deal was all-but done until an eleventh hour breakdown.
“The actual opportunity to go to West Ham wasn’t agreed really between both clubs and myself. So it wasn’t just my [choice] to say ‘Yes and I’m going’,” Maguire said. “But West Ham is a massive club.
“But like I said my full focus is still on Manchester United, I want to fight for my place but of course regular game time is really important to me.”
