West Ham sign Bent for 17m

[dww]

Done deal.

Absolute ****ing joke.

Has this been officially announced?

[StevieG08]

If what an Ipswich fan told me is true, then Ipswich Town will be happy as they put a sell on clause in the deal that took Bent to Charlton.

[tomasjj]

Hope it's done...

Imagine us spending 17 mill on a player with 2 int caps?

[Maestro]

The Crow in full flight...

I was at that game!

[Guest]

Hope it's done...

Imagine us spending 17 mill on a player with 2 int caps?

Apparently he's still holding out in order to see if another club doesn't come in.

[Joe Le Toff]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2007/06/14/bent-to-seal-deal-89520-19294363/

BENT TO SEAL DEAL
EXCLUSIVE: Bent lured by HUGE wages as West Ham chief takes spree to an amazing £121MILLION
By Darren Lewis 14/06/2007
WEST HAM'S spending under Alan Curbishley will hit £121million when they complete the signing of Darren Bent today.

The Charlton striker will be at Upton Park this morning to agree a five-year deal worth £75,000 a week, with Hammers midfielder Hayden Mullins switching to The Valley. West Ham boss Curbishley returned from holiday in Alicante last night after chairman Eggert Magnusson had his £16m offer accepted for the England forward.

Bent, 23, flew in from the Caribbean to seal the move. His capture will take Magnusson's commitment since putting Curbishley in charge in December to an incredible £121million in transfer fees and wages for just seven players.

Advertisement
Bent will join Luis Boa Morte (£5m and £35,000 a week), Matthew Upson (£6m and £50,000), Lucas Neill (£1.5m and £70,000), Calum Davenport (£3m and £30,000), Nigel Quashie (£1.75m and £30,000) and Scott Parker (£7m and £72,000).

The clubs are waiting for Mullins to agree to be reunited with his former boss Alan Pardew at Charlton, but that part of the agreement is not believed to be a deal-breaker.

Landing Bent is a big coup for West Ham, who had to battle Tottenham and Liverpool for his signature.

Anfield boss Rafa Benitez inquired about Bent last week but was dismissed out of hand after making what was believed to be a derisory offer.

Spurs lost out because they were unwilling to wreck up their wage structure to accommodate the striker's demands. Their top earner, Robbie Keane, is on £50,000 a week.

Sources suggest the Hammers' spending spree may not yet be over and that they may press ahead with a bid for £20m Everton striker Andy Johnson.

[enema of the state]

He's assuming that if Ice Ham buy strikers then Tevez will be available I think.

not much of an assumption mate - more a certainty

[dww]

Hmmm. A mildly sensationalist piece - when was the last time you say any clubs spending given including wages.

It would be interesting to see what reaction would come on if the extra wages paid to SG and Carra etc were put up by Hicks and Gillet were included in this season transfer budget.

[Maestro]

He's assuming that if Ice Ham buy strikers then Tevez will be available I think.

Hopefully it'll mean we can sign Dean Ashton on the cheap

Don't you start calling them Ice Ham as well :whatever:

[Neil Young]

Hmmm. A mildly sensationalist piece - when was the last time you say any clubs spending given including wages.

It would be interesting to see what reaction would come on if the extra wages paid to SG and Carra etc were put up by Hicks and Gillet were included in this season transfer budget.

There's an article in the Guardian about West Ham's spending fuelling wage inflation in the Premiership. Have you seen it?

[dww]

There's an article in the Guardian about West Ham's spending fuelling wage inflation in the Premiership. Have you seen it?

No. Is it online?

[Guest]

There's an article in the Guardian about West Ham's spending fuelling wage inflation in the Premiership. Have you seen it?

I actually been saying that before that article. I'm underrated in these parts.

[Neil Young]

No. Is it online?

To save you the bother:

West Ham lead the way as Premiership salaries soar

Premiership players' wages have increased more than 65% in seven years, thanks to nimble agents and munificent chairmen.
Michael Walker
June 14, 2007 1:51 AM

It will be dismissed as anecdotal but within English football, and specifically among agents, the following story is circulating and generating huge excitement. A player from a third-tier club who moved recently to a Championship club - one not so long ago in the Premiership - has seen his basic £1,500-a-week salary increase not five times, nor 10, but 15 times. The player's agent did not demand this sum; it was the club's opening gambit.

The belief that wages in football are soaring uncontrollably is understandable. In April a Professional Footballers' Association survey found that the average annual salary of a Premiership player is now £676,000 - £13,000 a week - a rise of 65% on 2000. The accountancy firm Deloitte puts the figure much higher.

It is repeated continually that agents are driving this inflation, and numerous chairmen and directors will support that theory. What is acknowledged less often by these chairmen is that clubs have long contributed to the situation.

Behind the scenes now, however, some Premiership chief executives are very anxious about wage escalation. "There's a little bit of fear out there at the moment," Nicky Hammond, Reading's director of football, said yesterday. "Everyone seems to be keeping their powder dry. The numbers being talked about this season are well in excess of last year in terms of both wages and transfers."

Although no one has gone public - yet - the club many are pointing the finger at is West Ham United. Their chairman, Eggert Magnusson, is now being branded "Father Christmas" by some rivals and, perhaps more worryingly, "Ridsdale" by others. "There's no doubt in my mind that West Ham has had an effect," says a senior figure at another Premiership club.

Annoyance stems from an open-wallet approach to the market, demonstrated on January 22 when Blackburn's Lucas Neill walked into Upton Park on a free transfer. Sources close to the deal have confirmed that Neill, by no means a star player, earns £72,000 a week in east London. He had the option to go to Liverpool but his wage there would have been "a fraction" of what he gets at West Ham.

Within boardrooms the Neill deal is being regarded as a landmark transfer. When asked on Tuesday about the Australian, the Middlesbrough chairman, Steve Gibson, said: "I don't know the details of Lucas Neill other than what I read. What I can comment on are the demands we have suffered from in the last three or four weeks. That would suggest agents are trying to push the barriers again. But that's the business and I am a businessman. But I have seen some of the deals that have gone through in recent weeks and I'm glad we haven't been involved in them."

Gibson is in a slightly tricky position. Middlesbrough, because of fashion and location, have had to pay sometimes exorbitant wages and Tuncay Sanli, whose signing was confirmed yesterday, is believed to be on £60,000 a week after his free transfer from Fenerbahce. One Istanbul sports daily printed pictures of his head on £20 notes to illustrate one reason why he is moving to Teesside. But he may be Middlesbrough's big glamour signing, whereas at West Ham and elsewhere the water-carriers are also being lavishly rewarded. One agent recounted a tale of another West Ham player - who is less regarded generally than Neill - having his wages trebled a few weeks ago.

Harry Redknapp knows the market better than most and the Portsmouth manager - formerly at West Ham - lamented: "Craig Bellamy would do for us. But West Ham want him and would double his wages to £100,000 a week. How do you compete with that? We've got no chance of getting Bellamy. We're all looking for strikers but the market's gone crazy."

A new television deal is one explanation of the sharp rise in wages but new owners are also a factor. The Icelandic owners' fortune underwrites West Ham but even so the comparison is being made with Peter Ridsdale's Leeds.

It was only this January that Ken Bates revealed that Gary Kelly's weekly wage at Leeds since 2001 has been £46,000 a week. "Twelve million pounds over five years," said the chairman. "I worked out that all the money that Leeds earned getting to the semi-finals of the Champions League was handed to Kelly with his new contract." Five years on, Leeds are in the third division. By 2012 they may still not have recovered. But Gary Kelly will still be a multimillionaire. As will Lucas Neill.

[Neil Young]

I actually been saying that before that article. I'm underrated in these parts.

No, you're not.

[Guest]

No, you're not.

Thanks for that. You made my day.