What will happen to Füllkrug, Bowen & Co.?
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West Ham United started the season in 14th place in the Premier League squad value table with 372 million euros – today they are 17th with 363 million euros. The fact that they ended up in 18th place behind Tottenham shouldn’t be too much of a shock. The Hammers’ relegation is much more about the trappings and the feeling that “too big to fail” no longer applies in the world’s most expensive league. Tottenham Hotspur almost got an even bigger caliber.
West Ham, which welcomed an average of 62,347 spectators per home game and is therefore one of the world’s biggest crowd magnets, is in ruins. The contracts of Adama Traoré, Callum Wilson and Lukasz Fabianski will end this summer for the 2023 Conference League winners. As of today, there are 25 players in the squad for the 2026/27 season, including six loan returners such as Niclas Füllkrug (Milan). Expensive transfers that partially or completely flopped, such as Füllkrug, Maximilian Kilman or Jean-Clair Todibo, are partly under contract until 2031.
According to the Times, experts expect the Hammers’ sales to fall by 50 to 60 percent after relegation. The rules of the Championship – England’s second division – state that squad costs cannot exceed 85 percent of revenue. This includes player and coach salaries, transfer write-offs and consultant fees. The fact that many West Ham professionals are said to have clauses in their contracts that reduce their salary by up to 50 percent in the event of relegation could help. Nevertheless, there are likely to be dozens of arrivals and departures by Deadline Day at the beginning of September and many big clubs hoping for a bargain with what will soon be the biggest second division team in the football world.
The most valuable, longest-serving and best player in coach Nuno Espírito Santo’s squad, but who is about to be eliminated, is Jarrod Bowen. The winger, who has been directly involved in 20 Premier League goals this season, has a market value of €35 million and is under contract until 2030. After relegation, he didn’t sound like a player who wanted to leave the club when times were tough. “I’m under contract here. There will be rumours, talk and nonsense, but ultimately I see my job as taking this club back to the Premier League. That’s exactly where it belongs,” he was quoted by the BBC as saying.
If you go by transfer activity, West Ham definitely belongs in the Premier League, after all the Londoners moved 1.15 billion euros on the transfer market in the last five years. 760 million euros were paid for additions, and sales brought 392 million euros into the coffers. The Hammers were already in the red in the financial year that ended on May 31, 2025 and the trend will most likely continue this year.
Will investments in football clubs be reassessed after West Ham’s relegation?
The relegation of West Ham and the near relegation of Spurs not only have sporting but also economic consequences. Several Premier League clubs are currently considered to be fully or partially for sale, including Manchester United and Liverpool. In this situation, West Ham’s collapse shows that even financially strong and structurally stable clubs are not protected from going into the second division. For potential buyers, this means: sporting success is less predictable, the risk increases – and this can also put the price under pressure. This is particularly clear in comparison to US sports: While the Premier League is an open system with promotion and relegation, teams in the NBA basketball league or the NFL football league remain permanently first-class regardless of their sporting performance. A Premier League club therefore becomes a risk investment, while US franchises are considered stable investments. The result: Investors evaluate clubs more cautiously, the previous “too big to fail” narrative is destroyed – and both club values and transfer markets are becoming more volatile.
The Hammers’ relegation also has financial consequences beyond the club: Since the London Stadium – the former Olympic Stadium – is publicly owned and financed with taxpayers’ money, its economic viability depends heavily on the Premier League affiliation of the club, which was last relegated in 2011 and returned after one season. In the Championship, ticket prices, international demand as well as VIP and sponsorship revenues fall significantly, while high operating and maintenance costs remain almost constant. Since West Ham also has comparatively favorable rental conditions, any possible deficit is partly borne by the public sector – and thus indirectly by the taxpayer.
From the 2026/27 season there will be a second division team again that has the potential to attract over 60,000 fans to the stadium – this was the case with Schalke 04 for three years. The last time a club of this magnitude was relegated in England was Newcastle United in 2016. They returned as champions a year later and have been living on a large footing since October 2021 thanks to Saudi investment. West Ham has several main shareholders, including CEO David Sullivan (approx. 38.8%), Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský (approx. 27%), the Gold Family Trust (approx. 25.1%) and US investor J. Albert Smith (approx. 8%).
“Ultimately we did not repay this support,” the club wrote after relegation. “The simple truth is that we weren’t good enough. Now we must face the consequences of that failure with honesty, transparency and the determination to repair, reset and rebuild.”
