Players including French international Alou Diarra, experienced midfielder Matt Taylor, striker Ricardo Vaz Te and third choice goalkeeper Stephen Henderson could leave West Ham before the transfer deadline to make way for new signings.
West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan has confirmed he will be working hard, right up until the deadline on 2 September, to reduce the club’s obligatory salary cap in order to free up funds for another central striker.
With Andy Carroll out until mid-September at the earliest as he continues to recover from a heel injury, manager Sam Allardyce has only one central striker - Modibo Maiga - on which to call.
West Ham though, are close to their £52 million salary cap under the new financial fair play regulations and must sell before they can buy.
‘In our case, we start with a £52 million limit,’ explained Sullivan in his programme notes for Saturday’s match against Cardiff.
‘If you exceed the figure you could be hit with a points deduction, so I hope you can see that players can only be brought in if there is money left in the wage budget. We are close to that limit now but that is not to say that our dealings in the transfer market are complete for the summer.
‘Players could well leave before the transfer window closes on 2 September, which would give us the money to add a couple more to the squad, so we will continue to work hard over the next couple of weeks'.
