Opinion: West Ham fans must accept that £30m A-star player will leave on a free transfer next year
One West Ham United player will leave the London Stadium on a free transfer in 2025 in my personal opinion.
West Ham manager David Moyes has a lot of work to do if he is to rebuild the current squad over the course of the next few transfer windows.
We have the second oldest squad of players in the league right now – with an average age of 28 (Transfermarkt).
One player who definitely needs to be replaced as far as I’m concerned is club captain Kurt Zouma, ideally this summer.
Moyes made a real howler by installing the 29-year-old as the club’s skipper at the start of this season – he’s not a leader in any shape or form, nor is he durable or reliable enough from a fitness perspective.
I would love Moyes to bring in a big upgrade on Zouma this season but the problem we will face is getting rid of the Frenchman…
West Ham fans must accept that £30m star will leave on a free transfer
Signed from Chelsea for £30 million in the summer of 2021 (Daily Mail), Zouma has been a great player for us on the whole, but his legs have clearly gone now and he has become a constant target for the opposition.
The centre-back, who will be 30 in October, earns £125k-a-week at the London Stadium (Spotrac), and he’ll be out of contract in the summer of 2025.
Now, given his history with injuries, and the obvious problems with his knees, there definitely won’t be any clubs willing to pay West Ham a fee for Zouma as well as matching his enormous wages.
He tore his cruciate ligament whilst at Chelsea back in the 2015/16 season, and since then he has missed 459 games through a succession of different injuries (Transfermarkt).
The most likely outcome in my mind is that he’ll remain at the London Stadium next season, and then we’ll release him in the summer of 2025.
Offering the former Chelsea man a new contract would be utter madness – Zouma is a walking disaster right now, as harsh as that may sound. He actually struggles to get around the pitch for the duration of the 90 minutes without limping.
He’s done playing at the very highest level but unfortunately for West Ham, I don’t see a scenario where we’ll get a fee for him, and I firmly believe that he’ll leave us one a free transfer in around 15 month’s time.
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