Haller Goes Dutch

It was confirmed earlier this morning that West Ham United striker Sébastien Haller has joined Dutch side Ajax on a permanent deal for a fee believed to be £20.2m.

Haller was signed in the summer of 2019 by Manuel Pellegrini for a club record £45m and despite scoring three goals on his first two starts, he didn’t really live up to the reputation he brought with him from Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt. The promise of further strikes evaporated and he only then went on to net eleven more times in a total of fifty appearances across all competitions.

Ajax’s interest in the player only came to fruition on Thursday morning and they then moved to make an offer. His departure now leaves current manager David Moyes with room to acquire another striker.

The Ivory Coast international was handed a chance to really stake his claim for a regular starting place following Michail Antonio’s hamstring injury in the 1-1 home draw with Manchester City back on 24 October. However, he didn’t really make the most of the latest opportunity and was dropped to the bench for the 2-1 home victory against Aston Villa on November 30 in favour of the former Nottingham Forest man.

Unfortunately for Antonio, he appeared to aggravate the injury and was substituted at half-time to be replaced by Haller.

Haller’s last goal in East London came in the 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace back on 16 December and it was one of his trademark overhead spectaculars. Due to that, Moyes hoped that he would then be able to contribute more goals as he started in the following games against Chelsea, Brighton and Hove Albion, Southampton and also Everton.

Disappointingly for Moyes, the player failed to add his name to the scoresheet in any of those games and all in all, the majority of Hammers’ fans would say that his 18-month spell with their club was a rather unsuccessful one.