On the same day that Aucklanders moved out of level four lockdown and could finally wrap their mouths around those twelve secret herbs and spices again, Winston Reid cleared out his locker and packed up his desk at West Ham HQ to seek out new footballing pastures where worries over loan fees and salary balances would be a thing of the past.

Yes, Winston Reid has been released by mutual consent from the club he joined from FC Midtjylland way back in 2010. He went on to represent West Ham United 222 times with 166 of those games coming in the Premier League. 10 goals were scored. Numerous clean sheets. At his peak he was one of the better defenders in England from outside the top six and although injuries ruined his last few years there he’ll always be remembered as a legend for this moment alone: scoring the winner against Manchester United in the last ever game at Upton Park...

That all sounds a bit like a eulogy but the fact is the bloke’s only 33 years old with plenty left to prove after missing so much time and this release should help with all that. In the last couple years he’s shown flashes of his old self during loans at Sporting Kansas City in the MLS and Brentford in the English Championship. Then he was absolutely brilliant against South Korea for the NZ Olympic team until injury struck in the following match. Ideally those Olympics would have been a showcase for his next loan move but instead they became a showcase for exactly why teams would’ve been hesitant about him in the first place. In four games he was twice subbed off hurt and missed one match entirely (although there was only one injury, tbf – he just rushed back for the quarter-final and played through the pain for as long as he could).

Reid had been included in the Hammers’ wider Premier League squad (albeit not in their Europa League list), though that never meant anything. It’s been clear since David Moyes took over that he didn’t see a place for Reid in his team. That was true before he went to Sporting KC and it was true yesterday. If there was any hope of him sneaking back in it was with West Ham having to do the PL/Europa double gameweek shuffle this season, but then they went and signed Kurt Zouma for £29.8m and that was just about the end of that idea.

News that he’s been released does not come as a shock. As covered in Flying Kiwis earlier in the month, it was reported that Reid had been agitating for another loan move leading up to the transfer deadline only for nothing to come of it. Would not have helped one bit that he was still rehabbing that knock from the Olympics (though word is he’s back training now). At which point it was either wait until January for another chance of a loan or accept a buyout and leave now. The latter is what’s happened.

This is the part of the article where we start talking about The Contract. It’s a factor that was written about in more detail last year, read that piece here, but the shorter form version goes like this...

Back when Sam Allardyce was coming towards the end of his time as WHU manager, the club was debating whether or not to offer him a new contract. Big Sam had been relatively successful with the Hammers, especially early on, but he’d never been a popular bloke because of the perception over the style of play he coaches. Allardyce’s relationship with the fans had soured and there were inklings that a few of the players were keen on a change of leadership too... in particular a bloke named Winston Reid seemed to be delaying signing a new contract despite also being in the final season of his then-current one.

Allardyce went as far as outright saying that he felt there were shenanigans afoot with Reid, that he probably already had a new club lined up. But then the Hammers decided they’d part way with Allardyce at the end of the campaign and almost immediately the mood shifted. Two months after Big Sam’s outburst (again, more on all that in that here), Reid signed a six-and-a-half year contract extension with West Ham. Mark Noble and James Tomkins had also both re-signed in the weeks prior. Fan favourites getting the boosters. That was back in 2015, hence that deal would have expired three months ago.

But the Hammers, who we’ve just established are prone to offering contract extensions as a way of appeasing fans (like most clubs, to be fair), had some struggles a couple years later. Dimitri Payet had come and gone. The Olympic Stadium move wasn’t going well. They’d been knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers by Astra Giurgiu (Romania). Slaven Bilic’s job was in big trouble. Thus two and a half years after giving him a massive contract extension... they went and gave him another one. A six year deal. Two years on top of what he already had plus presumably a healthy pay-rise. His previous contract had run down into its final four months. This one barely made it into the final four years. Baffling club management, outstanding player agency.

That contract was announced on 18 August 2017. On 3 March 2018 Reidy went down injured in a 4-1 loss to Swansea City, initially suffering a concussion but also busting his knee in the process. The knee injury turned out to be a season-ender. He then had a set-back the following pre-season that required further surgery. Long story short, Winston Reid has not played for West Ham since. He signed a six year contract and managed a mere 16 additional Premier League games for the club. There was a hope he might return under Manuel Pellegrini’s management but then Pellz got sacked and was replaced by David Moyes who had other ideas. That was when the SKC loan move happened.

Honestly, The Contract might have saved his career. Missing more than two years of competitive senior football through injury could have been a killer had he not been earning a reported £70,000 the whole time. Word was that Sporting KC were only paying 15% of that salary while he was there. Dunno what the arrangement was at Brentford but suffice to say that West Ham would have cut him loose long ago had they been able to. But why would Winston Reid, with all his injuries, sacrifice that much guaranteed money? West Ham gave him a needless contract extension. That was their problem.

It’s a little different now though. Before he was coming back from two years out and trying to prove he could still perform at a high level. Minor injury set-backs have continued to dog him but when he’s been able to play he’s shown his value. It was Reid who came on for the final ten minutes of the playoff final for Brentford after Pontus Jansson was hurt. Helped them ice a 2-0 win that took them up into the Premier League. The second victorious playoff final of Reid’s career after coming up that way with West Ham way back when.

So when a loan move didn’t eventuate last month, it will have been a catalyst. Winston Reid knows he only has so many years left in the sport and he’s spoken about wanting his kids to be able to see him play now that they’re a little older. And from West Ham’s point of view, having made it into the last two years of his contract, it’s a wee bit more manageable to simply buy him out. Thus that’s what’s happened. The interests of club and player finally overlapped. West Ham won’t have paid him the entire amount that he was still owed but they will have given him a large chunk of it. And in exchange for agreeing to that, Reid is now free to go somewhere where he’s actually got a chance of playing... plus thanks to that chunky payout he can do so with far cheaper wages.

Here we are then. What’s next? Where might he go? Probably a bit much to expect him to pop up at another Premier League club but he didn’t look at all out of place in the Championship earlier in the year. Heaps of Champo clubs would be desperate for a bit of what he offers and will be more than willing to cop the risk of injuries. A return to the MLS is always an option. SKC were previously keen to retain him but couldn’t afford to unless it was on another similarly favourable loan deal. But Reid didn’t push for that because he’d had to leave his family behind in London during a pandemic to make it happen and that cannot have been easy. If he wants his kids to see him play then surely he’s gotta stay in Europe? Which also takes the Wellington Phoenix out as a smokey option but that was never very likely.

A Championship club makes the most sense right now, especially one based near London. However if you want a sneaky backup plan then a return to Denmark would be pretty funky. It was his Danish connections that got him over the line with Brentford and hey if Cristiano Ronaldo can find his way back to Manchester United after all these years then maybe Winston Reid will do the same with FC Midtjylland. The Danish Super Liga is nine games into its season at the moment, a season which runs through until May. It could happen. Or Winston could go get paid some more in the Middle East or China, dunno. The beauty is that it’s now all up to him and his agent.

It’s easy to sit back and wonder what might have been had Reid not done his knee against Swansea. He may still have been a crucial part of that West Ham team to this day, surpassing Ryan Nelsen’s NZ record 198 appearances in the Premier League and then some. There may have been more famous goals like the one in the Upton Park farewell. He might currently be embarking on some Europa League footy. But that wishful thinking overshadows the immensity of what he did achieve there at West Ham. And maybe, just maybe, there are a couple more chapters to add to the book of Reidy’s career yet.

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