- West Ham United are in the Premier League relegation zone
- Former Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow has revealed that the Hammers will have to cut back costs if relegated
- West Ham face Arsenal on Sunday at the London Stadium
If relegated, the wider operation of West Ham will face monumental impact beyond the playing squad.
The Hammers haven’t played in England’s second tier since 2011, though they face the increasingly likely possibility of not just fielding a Championship side but also cutting back costs closer towards their potential peers.
West Ham are 18th in the Premier League, in the relegation zone, with three matches remaining, and will have a drastic summer if the situation, on and off the pitch, doesn’t improve, according to one former Premier League club CEO.
Christian Purslow reveals cost-cutting measures West Ham could face
Speaking with football writer Henry Winter on The Football Boardroom, former Liverpool, Chelsea, and recently Aston Villa director Christian Purslow stated that West Ham will have to be braced for cost conditions that come with relegation.
Purslow pointed out that West Ham’s increase in personnel and precarious financial position, especially on the administrative side, would have to be heavily factored into the club’s relegation plans in order to aid the expected reduction in revenue.
Purslow also reveals that the Hammers’ recent lavish spending, with over £685 million spent on playing expenditure in the last four seasons combined with the club’s slip in the table, will mean the sale of current attractive assets.
“Sadly, I would imagine in a relegation scenario, and maybe even not in a relegation scenario, given the numbers, I would expect to see the club having to tighten its belt on the number of employees this summer.”
“I fear the worst. They haven’t had great success in the recruitment [and leadership] business.”
Purslow reflected upon his time at Aston Villa between 2018 and 2023, where he spent his first year at the club in the Championship before the Villans earned promotion via the playoffs.
“I joined them at the beginning of their third year out, their last year of parachute [payments] and they did have a redundancy program as the majority of clubs do when they go down… it is one of the reasons why I started with, as I always do, the people side of the equation.”
“You could see the impact on staff of major cost reduction that [the] club had taken immediately upon relegation.”
What’s next for West Ham?
Throughout the podcast, Purslow highlighted the impact of the relationship between majority shareholders David Sullivan and Daniel Křetínský in their dual ownership of the club.
Purslow cited that Křetínský would like to reshuffle the footballing hierarchy following the departure of vice-chairman Karren Brady, but any decision would have to be contingent on the club’s position in domestic standings.
“In a downside scenario, a doomsday scenario even where they drop into the Championship and struggle to get out of it… that’s a scenario where, in the end, something will have to give because David Sullivan and Daniel Křetínský writing checks indefinitely in a lossmaking proposition in the Championship simply isn’t something that either of those guys will want to do.”
As it stands, West Ham faces Arsenal on Sunday at the London Stadium before taking on Newcastle United the following week and Leeds United on the final day. Their relegation rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, also endure a difficult final run-in, which starts next Monday against Leeds.
Depending on how the next weeks unravel, West Ham may face historical repercussions with only themselves to blame.
