West Ham United will reportedly make Jack Wilshere their second highest paid player if the midfielder joins from Arsenal.
New Gunners head coach, Unai Emery, has told Wilshere he wants him to stay at the Emirates Stadium, but the club are unwilling to improve their contract offer of £100,000-a-week.
This would see the 26-year-old taking a 20 percent pay cut on his current deal with the North Londoners – which expires at the end of this month – while the Hammers are ready to offer a £130,000-a-week, four-year contract.
Although Everton, Juventus, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers are also interested, with Wilshere preferring to stay in London a switch to West Ham seems to be the most likely outcome.
A risky move?
Paying Wilshere £130,000-a-week would make the midfielder the second highest paid at the London Stadium, just behind top earner Javier Hernandez (£140,000-a-week) and well ahead of Marko Arnautovic (£100,000-a-week) in third – with figures from Spotrac.
With newly appointed manager Manuel Pellegrini said to rate the England international highly and wanting to build a team round him, this should perhaps come as no surprise, but still seems a little risky.
That is because despite it now being a decade since Wilshere made his senior breakthrough in professional football, he is still yet to show the sort of consistency that warrants a Premier League team being built around him.
That is largely due to injuries which have plagued the Englishman’s career to date, but even when fully fit there is a general feeling that the midfield ace has failed to truly fulfill his potential.
Perhaps the East Londoners will prove all the doubters wrong by tying up Wilshere for his best playing years, but it still seems like an expensive gamble; even when there is no transfer fee involved.
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