West Ham United’s owner David Sullivan has revealed his regret of letting Demba Ba slip through his fingers, and also believes Newcastle should fear losing him.
Ba joined NUFC on a free transfer at the start of the season from the Hammers, but Sullivan says the Senegalese striker could leave St. James’ Park for as little as £3.5m in the summer.
Sullivan told West Ham Till I Die:
“Demba Ba signed a three-and-a-half year contract with us.
“We had a deal where his salary would be halved (from £35,000 a week) if we were relegated. He said, ‘Well on that basis, I have got to be allowed to walk if we get relegated’.
“What we should have said in retrospect – but none of us thought he would score so many goals – is we’d be happy to give him £40 grand a week in the Championship.
“In the end I offered him £45 grand a week to stay but he wouldn’t take it.”
He continued:
“What we should have said was that if we don’t halve your salary, you haven’t got a get-out. The failure to put that one line in the contract cost us very, very dearly.
“I’m told he’s got a £7m get-out at Newcastle and he gets half the money over that, they keep denying it but I think you’ll see in the summer he will leave Newcastle or he’ll get a monstrous rise to stay there.”
He regrettably added:
“It’s one of those mistakes that happen, but it’s probably one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life.”
Ba has scored 16 goals for Newcastle since joining from West Ham.
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