End of a £17.5m flop! West Ham working to rip up forgotten man's contract
One of West Ham's most expensive mistakes is finally nearing the exit: the club are exploring a mutual termination of Maxwel Cornet's contract.
Details: According to ExWHUEmployee, the Hammers are in talks with the 29 year old Ivorian over ending his deal early. Cornet, signed from Burnley for £17.5m in 2022, has not played for West Ham since April 2024 and still has time left on the five year contract he signed on arrival.
The writing has been on the wall for over a year: former boss Graham Potter publicly admitted Cornet needed to leave for regular football, and successive loans to Southampton and Genoa produced just a handful of starts. With the club now in the Championship under Nuno Espirito Santo and trimming a wage bill bloated by years of misfiring signings, Cornet's reported £32,500 a week is dead weight the Hammers can no longer justify. A mutual termination would free both sides: the club shed salary, the player gets to choose his next destination as a free agent, with a return to France or Italy the most likely landing spots for a winger once feared across Ligue 1 with Lyon.
It's worth noting that Cornet's £17.5m fee remains one of the largest in West Ham's history for a player who made such a fleeting impact, a symbol of the recruitment chaos the club are still cleaning up.
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Miguel Solomons
Dailysports's expert
