West Ham's £20m sigh of relief

West Ham managing director Paul Aldridge today revealed that relegation from the Premiership could have cost the club between £15-£20 million.

West Ham ended any lingering doubts about survival with their 3-0 home win over Southampton but Aldridge admitted: "It's been a worrying couple of weeks. With lost TV revenue, plus position and ticket income, we would have been looking at losing between £15-20m if we had gone down."

Meanwhile, manager Harry Redknapp will this week try to persuade defender Stuart Pearce to carry on playing for another season.

Pearce, who was voted the club's Player of the Year, said: "With the situation being what it was, I didn't think it was the right time to sit down and talk to Harry.

"We'll have a chat soon and try to work something out. Harry knows that, at this stage in my career, the priority has to be in management or coaching and, if I do continue playing, there would have to be a clause in my contract which would allow me to follow that path should I want to."

Redknapp could draft in teenage striker Jermain Defoe for the final game of the season at Middlesbrough on Saturday week. Defoe has finished his loan spell at Bournemouth and looks certain to be in the West Ham squad.

Likely departures during the close season are loan players Sebastien Schemmel, Kaba Diawara and Christian Bassila, plus striker Paul Kitson and defender Ian Pearce.

Redknapp is unlikely to have millions to spend on new players and may have to part with at least one of his valuable assets to help generate funds.

Paolo Di Canio is keen to stay but Watford's new manager Gianluca Vialli, with £6m to spend, could be intererested.