West Ham United lost Demba Ba on a free transfer, and co-owner David Sullivan thinks Newcastle United risk losing him for as little as £3.5m this summer.
Sullivan has described the deal which took Demba Ba to St James’ Park as “probably one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life”.
But he believes that the Magpies could also be short-changed, as Hoffenheim were when the Senegal striker first moved to the Premier League in January 2011.
David Sullivan: “Demba Ba signed a three-and-a-half year contract with us.
“We had a deal where his salary would be halved (from £35,000 a week) if we were relegated. He said, ‘Well on that basis, I have got to be allowed to walk if we get relegated’.
“What we should have said in retrospect – but none of us thought he would score so many goals – is we’d be happy to give him £40 grand a week in the Championship.
“In the end I offered him £45 grand a week to stay but he wouldn’t take it.
“What we should have said was that if we don’t halve your salary, you haven’t got a get-out. The failure to put that one line in the contract cost us very, very dearly.
“I’m told he’s got a £7m get-out at Newcastle and he gets half the money over that.
”They keep denying it but I think you’ll see in the summer he will leave Newcastle or he’ll get a monstrous rise to stay there.
“It’s one of those mistakes that happen, but it’s probably one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life.
“It just didn’t enter anybody’s head that he’d score enough goals that we’d want to give him £40k a week and his old club £15/20k an appearance.”
Source: FOOTYMAD
