So, with West Ham United on the hunt for a new manager, Ruben Amorim appears to still be an option for us.
Ruben Amorim was first courted by West Ham last week, when a report claimed that we had opened talks with the 39-year-old Sporting CP boss.
The Portuguese flew over from London to hold a meeting with the Hammers owners – one that went really badly by all accounts – and he returned to Sporting with his tail between his legs.
Amorim then apologised to the Sporting fans for flying over to London to hold talks with West Ham in the middle of a title race:
It was a mistake. The timing was completely wrong“, as quoted by the likes of the The Daily Mail.
“I’m always asking my players to be respectful, and I wasn’t, even if I informed the club before (that I was flying to have talks with West Ham).”
“I’m so sorry and I apologise to fans, club and players.”
His future remains very much up in the air right now though.
The 39-year-old has made some serious waves in football management over the past couple of years.
His Sporting side play a sensational brand of football, and are on track to win their second league title in the last three years.
So could he really swap Lisbon for East London this summer?
Ruben Amorim to West Ham claim made
Julen Lopetegui appears to be the front-runner for the West Ham job.
However, Amorim appears to still be an option for us, with Mark Noble and Tim Steidten allegedly pushing David Sullivan to appoint the Sporting coach to replace David Moyes.
And now Hammers insider Sean Whetstone has provided a new update on Amorim, and the financials behind hiring him.
Amorim is after a three-year deal minimum at his next club.
So taking Whetstone’s claim into consideration, that means it would take a £30 million comittment in wages at the very least from West Ham to bring the 39-year-old to the London Stadium.
In addition to his supposed £17 million release clause, that’s a total of a potential outlay of £47 million on the Sporting CP coach.
In my view, I just can’t see it being that costly to appoint him. I believe he’d accept half of those wages, and Fabrizio Romano recently claimed that Sporting could accept just half of his £17 million release clause.
A deal for West Ham to appoint Ruben Amorim would probably cost closer to £23 million in total. All David Sullivan then needs to do is insert a £20 million release clause into the Portuguese’s contract – job done!
Hopefully we manage to bring the 39-year-old to the club this summer. He’s such a good manager and would have the Hammers fans salivating with the football that he implements.
