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Michail Antonio reveals brutal West Ham contract offer after horror car crash
Updated: 13 Jul 2026 14:15 BST |
4 min read
News
Former West Ham United attacker Michael Antonio has revealed the brutal nature of Karren Brady’s negotiating tactics over a new contract after he had suffered his horror car crash.
Antonio, 36, was released by the Hammers a year ago at the end of his contract and is currently a free agent after a spell with Al-Sailiya in Qatar.
He played 323 games with the Hammers over a 10-year career with the East London club, scoring 83 goals and generating a further 43 assists as he notably helped them to win the Conference League under David Moyes.
His life was changed in December 2024 when he was involved in a serious car accident, which required surgery that would ultimately prevent him from playing competitive football for nearly 18 months.
Antonio’s West Ham career was effectively ended at that moment, with the Jamaica international revealing in an interview with FourFourTwo that he was offered a deal by former vice-chair Brady that was worse than the youth players were getting.
“Karren Brady told me that she’d offer me a £5,000-a-week contract, but with the under-21s, not the first team,” he said. “I said: ‘How can you offer £5,000 a week and tell me to play for the under-21s, when the under-21s are on more than that and I’ve been at this club for 10 years?’
“Her response was: ‘Well, they haven’t been in a car crash and shattered their leg.’ I was like: ‘Oof, OK…’ I didn’t sign the contract.”
Potter to blame for West Ham relegation
But it wasn’t only Brady who was criticised for her leadership at the club. Former manager Graham Potter was also slammed by Antonio for trying to bar him from the training ground.
“Graham Potter tried to stop me coming to the training ground for the rest of my contract because I made a comment during something I did with TNT, the same comment that I’d been making for years, about how clubs treat players like meat. As soon as a player starts getting stale, the club want to release them. I said that on TNT, went in the next day and Graham pulled me into his office,” he said.
“He said: 'I think it’s best that you don’t come back in here.' I told him: 'Well I will be, because you guys have a duty of care to me and I know I’m allowed to be here, so I’ll see you tomorrow.'
“It was an argument and, from that day, we never even said hello to each other, and never spoke again.”
Indeed, Antonio pinned the blame on the former Chelsea manager for West Ham’s relegation.
“He made the decision to get rid of all of the senior players,” he said. “Me, Aaron Cresswell, Vladi Coufal, Edson Alvarez – he got rid of all of the players who were leaders. And then within a month of the season starting, he said: ‘We’ve got no leaders.’
“How does that even make any sense? How can you get rid of all the leaders, then go: ‘We have no leaders in the changing room.’ It was your doing!”
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