Sam Byram never set the world alight at Upton Park or London Stadium in his three-and-a-half-year spell as a Hammer, however, after signing for the club for £3.7m back in January 2016 (The Independent), losing him for just £750k (BBC) represents some shocking business.
The Irons will be pleased to see the back of Byram given his performances for them. Across three-and-a-half seasons the ex-Leeds man managed just 36 outings for the Premier League side, and now they’ve made a loss of around £3m on the defender.
No one was expecting to see Byram leave the club for massive amounts of money, but Manuel Pellegrini should have at least been able to negotiate a seven-figure sum for the defender, especially considering the fact that Norwich had to battle with Nottingham Forest and West Brom for his signature, with the Championship pair both keen on Byram.
The fact that Norwich managed to come out on top over two other clubs and still managed to part with a fee less than £1m is a damning indictment on both how highly rated Byram was at West Ham and the Irons’ ability to negotiate a better fee for a defender who has obvious promise, even if he never showed it in London.
Before signing for West Ham, Byram racked up 143 appearances for Leeds United, scoring ten goals and assisting 12 in that time, Transfermarkt. Now it will be up to the 25-year-old to get his career back on track at Carrow Road, and you wouldn’t bet against him doing so when given regular game time.
The chances at West Ham just weren’t there for the right-back. Pablo Zabaleta and Ryan Fredericks are the two players who shared the role last season and with young Ben Johnson waiting in the wings, it left no room for the now-Norwich man.
Whilst the meagre fee is hardly something to be pleased about, according to ExWHUemployee on Twitter, the Hammers have shaved £25,000-per-week off of their wage bill, although it’s hard to imagine they pushed the Canaries as far as possible when it came to the price.
