Nikola Vlasic and Alex Kral both joined from Russian clubs ahead of the 2021/22 season but neither player found success at West Ham.
Insider ExWHUEmployee has revealed that West Ham United could owe millions in unpaid fees to Russian clubs and it could result in a transfer ban.
What are the latest West Ham transfer rumours?
In the summer transfer window before last, Nikola Vlasic arrived from CSKA Moscow on a permanent transfer, while Alex Kral joined on loan from Spartak Moscow for the 2021/22 season.
It’s safe to say those moves didn’t go great for either player. Indeed, Vlasic is now on loan with Serie A club Torino after one goal in 19 Premier League outings for the Hammers, while Kral finished his loan with just six appearances under his belt across the entire season.
On top of that disappointment, it seems as though West Ham now have another headache to consider relating to the flops.
Indeed, while speaking on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex revealed the club still owe money relating to unpaid fees, with payments affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The insider said (0:21): “West Ham apparently owe a collective amount of £7.8m to the Russian authorities over unpaid transfer fees.
“So the first one is for Alex Kral’s loan move from Spartak Moscow, apparently, we still owe £4.38m for that. And that we still owe CFK Moscow £3.5m for Vlasic.
“Now, West Ham are arguing that you’re not allowed to send money to Russia, obviously as a result of the Russia-Ukrainian war.
“But the Russian authorities are saying they’re owed that money, and there’s even talk that they’re applying for us to have a transfer ban as a result of not paying these figures.
“I mean, the figure is so small that I’m sure if that ever became a realistic penalty, then then we would just pay it. But we’re still disputing this.”
Why did Alex Kral flop at West Ham?
It’s fair to say Kral didn’t enjoy his time with the East London football club. Indeed, he told Capital Football in a interview earlier this season: “Really fast I recognised I won’t play in too many games, so I worked on my weaknesses in each training.
“Moyes didn’t speak much with me, he was detached.
“I only spoke to him one time when I went to him, asking him what I needed to improve to play, at a time when Rice and Tomas were out of the game.
“But something was off because if I had been doing everything right I’d be playing, no? So, I tried to speak like this with him, I didn’t go and ask: ‘Why am I not playing?’.
“But he kept saying that I needed to wait for my chance, the rest was between him and me.”
In the end, he left West Ham have played for just one minute in the Premier League, so it’s safe to say it wasn’t a good loan spell – nor was he worth that £4.38m still owed.
Vlasic also struggled as mentioned earlier and seeing as he cost an initial £25.7m plus £7.7m in add-ons, which seems to not have been paid yet, the Irons must truly regret these deals now.
