David Sullivan has ‘nowhere to hide’ as PSR-busting £50m deal exposes the truth at West Ham

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West Ham United have had a fairly uneventful transfer window so far, with just one new signing – and not a particularly high-profile one at that.

Young Scottish striker Daniel Cummings will be joining West Ham on a free transfer from Celtic.

A second player – Mohamadou Kante – will also be arriving at the London Stadium, but that deal was agreed last summer.

For months, West Ham’s board have been insisting that there is no money to spend on signings until sales are made.

However, an update involving a Premier League rival now appears to have exposed the truth regarding West Ham’s PSR situation, according to TBR Football’s finance expert Adam Williams.

READ MORE: New London Stadium naming rights partner mooted as West Ham tipped to lock in ‘£15-20m’ deal

Aston Villa’s sale of women’s team makes things ‘awkward’ for West Ham

Aston Villa have moved to sell their women’s team to help comply with their PSR situation, as reported by The Guardian.

Villa have agreed a deal to sell their women’s team to V Sports, their parent company founded by the club’s billionaire owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris.

This has effectively given carte blanche for other Premier League teams to do the same – but West Ham are not expected to do so.

And according to Williams, this suggests West Ham don’t actually need to – because they don’t have any PSR problems.

“Things have just got a bit awkward for clubs like West Ham, who brief to journalists that they are up against it with PSR even though they actually have plenty of headroom to spend,” Williams exclusively told TBR Football.

“The fact that Villa are now selling the women’s team to themselves following in Chelsea’s footsteps effectively means that every Premier League side has been approved to do the same.

“West Ham have a WSL team too which, based on the Villa valuation, is probably worth £50million. David Sullivan could use that to artificially create more PSR flexibility if he really needs to.

“I strongly suspect that he won’t, however, as he simply doesn’t need to because West Ham don’t have any PSR problems.

“The reason the owners aren’t investing or are saying they need to sell before they buy is because of cash flow and the fact they don’t really want to put any more of their own money into the club, not because of PSR.

“That’s a perfectly viable reason in my view, but you should be honest with fans about that. Don’t blame PSR as an easy get-out.

“Hopefully one silver lining of the Chelsea and Villa intra-company deals is that more fans are aware of what can be done if you do actually need to create more breathing space to spend. There’s nowhere to hide now.”

READ MORE: West Ham threatened with transfer ban, David Sullivan will be braced for ‘worst-case scenario’

West Ham’s current PSR situation

In terms of PSR, The Athletic have predicted that West Ham could have lost £95million in 2024-25 and remained PSR-compliant.

“They are in little danger – and, with their accounting year-end falling on May 31, their lack of activity recently is reflective of as much,” they wrote.

A club can lose up to £105million over a three-year period, as long as £90million is covered by the owner, i.e., injected as equity.