There has been much speculation over Michail Antonio’s West Ham future and contract situation in recent weeks. Speaking to Football Insider, Stefan Borson has suggested the Club could still reach some form of agreement with their Premier League record goalscorer.

The West Ham forward was involved in a serious road traffic accident back in December. As a result of the accident, Antonio was left with a broken leg which ultimately brought his 2024/25 season to an end.

Antonio has been at West Ham for ten years, he has made over 300 appearances in Claret and Blue and is the Club’s leading Premier League goalscorer with 68 top flight strikes, 12 ahead of Hammers skipper Jarrod Bowen and 21 ahead of Club legends Paolo Di Canio and Mark Noble.

The 35 year old is out of contract at the end of the month, and there has been much speculation regarding his contract situation of late. Some reports have suggested the Jamaican international and his team rejected a new contract put forward by the Club.

West Ham recently announced that any update on Antonio’s future will be shared when a decision has been reached and the timing is right. Discussing Antonio’s future with Football Insider, Stefan Borston suggested that a short term deal or an agreement of some form could well still be reached between Antonio and West Ham.

The Hammers have already brought their wage bill down significantly, with Aaron Cresswell, Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski, Danny Ings, and Kurt Zouma all set to depart the Club upon the expiry of their contracts on the 30th of June.

Borston told Football Insider: “I guess there may be a special arrangement. I don’t think they’re necessarily going to be in a position where they’re particularly minded to continue to pay him.”

He continued: “They may well continue to offer him rehabilitation services, but then there may well be insurance issues and things like that. So maybe a short term contract of some sort. I suspect that that’s it in terms of paying him unless they can agree a new contract.”

Interestingly Antonio returned to action for Jamaica in their Gold Cup defeat against Guatemala on Tuesday morning. The 35 year old came off the bench late in the second half for the final ten minutes, marking his first appearance since his car crash.

Antonio’s West Ham future appears very much still up in the air. Striker is a position in which the Hammers have struggled for many success stories for a number of years. The Jamaican international’s conversion from a winger to striker, has been an overall success. Strikers have been signed to replace the 35 year old, but these signings have been less than successful with the Club almost always resorting back to playing Antonio up top.

From the 2019/20 season Antonio enjoyed four consecutive campaigns with 10 or more goals in all competitions, a consistency that has been rare among West Ham forwards in recent years. The Club could well return to Antonio and his team with a further contract offer, likely featuring a reduced weekly wage paired with higher incentives such as appearance bonuses.

That being said, there is no guarantee that at 35, Antonio returns to action for West Ham the same player after a long term injury late in his career.

It would be disappointing to see Antonio leave this summer. A loyal servant, he, like Vladimir Coufal, Lukasz Fabianski and Aaron Cresswell, understands exactly what it means to represent West Ham United. He would also be an incredibly hard player to replace.

Losing Antonio would leave West Ham with first team striker: Niclas Fullkrug, who spent the majority of his debut season sidelined by injury. This would leave the Hammers needing to invest significantly in forward areas. It seems far from definite this will happen, especially given the noise coming out of the Club about PSR concerns and the need to sell to bring in new players.