PROFLIGACY & PAY CUTS AT WEST HAM

West Ham manager, Gianfranco Zola, has reacted to quotes earlier today from his boss David Sullivan. Sullivan had said that everyone at West Ham – including the manager – was overpaid. Sullivan said redundancies and pay cuts were inevitable. Zola said: “I am not happy that these comments have been made, especially before our big game against Birmingham. They should have talked to us before the newspaper and radio. Personally when i accepted the job i had no idea what i would be paid.”

Zola was responding to a claim made Tuesday by Sullivan. He has revealed astonishing facts and figures about the payroll at Upton Park. He said: “Everyone at West Ham is overpaid. All Premier League managers are overpaid. Including our own, Gianfranco Zola. I could go right through the club and site cases of high wages.  I found that West Ham employed a so called player liason officer. In other words someone who drives the players around. In effect a chauffer. He alone was on a salary of £50.000 a year.

“We have to get leaner. If you go up to the training ground there are people around who we don’t know what they do. There are 110 mobile phones and blackberry devices being paid for by the club. We are asking all playing staff to take a voluntary wage reduction at the end of this season. The club faces an enormous task. Together we can do it but we all have to pull together. For example, Mido has taken a £49.000 a week salary cut at West Ham. He wants to prove how devoted he is to West Ham and the fans should be very happy with Mido.”

The very fact that a player at lowly West Ham gets a pat on the back for taking a pay cut of £49K a week (yes, that’s right, £49K a week) sort of sums up the problems of clubs such as West Ham and Portsmouth. Clubs where a succession of owners have got it wrong and spent too much money. It also says a great deal about the ludicrous, unsustainable wages that footballers are paid today. The game has lost the plot and it’s hard to say when, if ever, football will once again enter the real world.

We understand that the assistant manager at West Ham, Steve Clarke, will be one of the staff at Upton Park who will have to take a pay cut next season if he is to stay with West Ham. Clarke is paid substantially more than some actual managers at other Premier League clubs. He and Zola will have to agree to much smaller salaries in the summer if they are to stay in charge of team affairs at West Ham.