Sources: West Ham place £70K-a-week star in shop window ahead of sale
West Ham have loaned Winston Reid out to the MLS to get him fit and place him in the shop window as they look to get him off the wage bill permanently, Football Insider understands.
The New Zealand international, 31, joined Sporting Kansas last month on a loan deal that runs for the rest of this season.
A West Ham source has told Football Insider that the club privately accept Reid’s wretched recent injury history means he has little chance of recapturing his former heights and their medium-term aim is to secure a permanent buyer for him.
The 6ft 3in centre-back is a high earner and has a £70,000-a-week Hammers contract that runs until 2023.
Sporting Kansas are paying a significant portion of his wages, although it is less than half of his Premier League salary.
This came after Reid was on the verge of joining their MLS rivals Nashville before, as revealed by Football Insider, the plug was pulled on the deal at the eleventh hour due to Reid’s injury history.
David Moyes gave the green light for the long-standing West Ham defender to temporarily leave after assessing him at close quarters in training.
He decided Reid was behind regular centre-backs Issa Diop, Angelo Ogbonna and Fabian Balbuena as well as Aaron Cresswell, who has slotted into a three-man defence at times during Moyes’ reign.
Reid has not played for the Hammers first team since March 2018 due to back and knee problems.
The club are paying the price of handing him a six-year deal that ties him down until he is a few days short of his 35th birthday.
In other West Ham news, it can be REVEALED one of the club’s young loanees has left Football Insider pundit purring – “Wow, he’s unplayable at times”.