Razvan Rat had his contract terminated by mutual content on Friday after just six short months at West Ham. He joined on a free transfer from Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk on a one year contract with a option to extend 2 or 3 years. Rat is believed to have earned £30,000 per week in wages so it will release the equivalent of £1.5m off the annual wage bill going forward although he was only contracted until the summer and his compromise agreement is believed to be around 75% of his remaining wages until the end of his contract in May.
Just last month Rat said his time at West Ham United “ends” if we are relegated.The Romania left back was questioned about commitment by fans after only arriving only in the summer.
Rat told the Express a few weeks ago “There are some clauses and conditions in my contract but one thing is sure, my contract ends if West Ham are relegated, I will be fighting to keep West Ham in the Premier League. I have a wife and three-year-old daughter to look after. But I try to keep my family away from what I do. They must only the know the good part of my job. They need to feel only the good part of football.This is my job and I am trying to do my best for me and my family and also the player that the fans want to see. I want my family to read in the papers how good a performance Razvan Rat had.”
It understood his contract also included a clause to automatically extend his contract by 2 years if he played at least 60% of games this season. Rat played in 20 games and was dangerously close to that 27 game trigger clause.
It has also been rumoured that Allardyce had a major fall out with Rat after he told Sam he was embarrassed to play for a club that always lost! It is claimed he recently worsened that relationship by not following Sam team talks or instructions by playing a more attacking forward role than the manager gave him then tried to blame the misunderstanding on the language barrier. When Rat signed Sam was quoted as saying “He speaks perfect English, which he taught himself, and that shows the discipline and the character of the man”
I understand he was offered out to other teams during the transfer window but there were no takers so we offered him a compromise agreement to free up a squad place and slightly reduce the wage bill.
The Sun used the headline pun ‘Rat leaves sinking ship’ I think the ship is far more sea worthy without him and gives us a better chance to stay afloat this season.