The West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has revealed that players and management staff will be asked to take a salary cut even if the club avoids relegation from the Premier League and has warned that it will be "Armageddon" if the Londoners go down.
"Everyone will be asked to take a cut this summer," Sullivan told the Sun, which reported that the pay reductions would amount to 25% of their salaries.
High earners such as Scott Parker and Kieron Dyer, who reportedly take home around £65,000-a-week are among those who may be affected, as well as the England defender Matthew Upson.
The full scale of the financial crisis at Upton Park is made clear in documents which the paper claims reveal the club owes £15m to other teams in outstanding fees for its current squad assembled for a costly £75m.
"It'll be Armageddon if we go down. It'll be worse than what's gone on at Newcastle," said Sullivan. "I can't believe the contracts I've inherited. Every position is overpaid, whether in administration or on the playing side. All are earning more than they would at other clubs.
"We have made cutbacks already but may have to make another 20 or 30 people redundant by the summer. We have already had people in senior positions offer to take a voluntary 25% reduction to keep their jobs. It's been gratefully accepted. If someone is doing a good job but is overpaid you still want to keep them. But many people at the training ground should take a voluntary pay cut. There's an army of people supporting the first team. Everyone at the club will be asked to take a salary cut in the summer. The club is in a mess and we all have to pull together. If we go down I can't even consider the situation."
West Ham, two places off the bottom, face Sullivan and David Gold's former club Birmingham City at Upton Park tomorrow evening. Gold has said he hopes his new club "whack" Alex McLeish's side.
"I was at Birmingham City for years and it was great – but I really want to whack them," he said. "I have a great fondness for Birmingham but it was the way it ended. I am a lot wiser now than when I went there 17 years ago and I want to win. My allegiance is to West Ham – that is where my heart and soul is and I think of my mum looking down and going: 'Come on you Hammers.'"
