No West Ham buy-back option on Sunderland midfield star Pierre Ekwah, report claims

Sunderland should be safe from any contractual obligation to allow West Ham to sign Pierre Ekwah, with it emerging that there is no buy-back clause in the deal that took him to Wearside.

Ekwah joined Sunderland in January for no initial fee, and he has gone on to develop at an incredible rate.

The 21-year-old is now a key member of the Sunderland side and one of the top midfielders in the entire Championship, and he underlined that fresh authority with two goals in the 5-0 demolition of Southampton last week.

Such has been Ekwah’s rapid rate of development, fears have been growing that West Ham have a buy-back option on the Frenchman, similar to that inserted by Tottenham in the Dennis Cirkin transfer.

However, the West Ham twitter expert ExWHUEmployee, who was the first to break Ekwah’s move to Sunderland, says that no such buy-back clause exists.

“We inserted a few items into the deal that saw Ekwah depart for Sunderland,” ExWHUEmployee said on The West Ham Way Podcast. “Firstly there is a 35% sell on clause which is significant.

“There are also appearance related payments. So when he plays 20, 40, 60 games etc we received additional monies. There is however no buy-back clause unfortunately. So West Ham have no rights to sign the player back ahead of any other clubs.”

While any West Ham interest in regaining Ekwah has not been confirmed, Sunderland did have to fight off interest in the Frenchman from Stuttgart and another unnamed club this summer.

Ekwah himself, though, has shrugged off any talk of leaving Sunderland, and with him tied to a contract for another four years, the Black Cats are in a strong position with him.

"It's just the transfer window, it could get active, but definitely everyone is happy to be here and showed on Saturday that they want to be here. I feel good here, that's why I'm still here and you can see that.

"I'm definitely pushing through to get Sunderland where they need to be. I am a great believer in fate. My path was Sunderland and I was meant to be here.”

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