Sebastien Haller can use West Ham’s failed transfers to his advantage

3 minute read 18/10/2020 | 09:10am

West Ham United striker Sebastien Haller can use the east London outfit’s failed bids to sign a new forward this summer to his advantage after a poor start to the season.

Haller has found himself an outcast of boss David Moyes’ Premier League plans thus far this term, with the Scottish coach only awarding the 26-year-old a mere 29 minutes on the field spread over four substitute appearances.

The Frenchman, whom the Irons signed for a club-record £45million only a year ago, has also only managed to enter the action for the final two minutes of regular time in each of West Ham’s last three top-flight fixtures despite boasting four goals and an assist in three Carabao Cup run outs.

He further struck home during his late cameo against Wolverhampton Wanderers to round out the scoring in a 4-0 rout, heading home Arthur Masuaku’s delivery for his first Premier League strike since February’s 3-1 win at home to Southampton.

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Haller, who TransferMarkt now only value at £27m after a further £5.4m decline this month, must now use West Ham’s failed efforts to sign a new striker to his advantage with Michail Antonio the only other centre-forward currently in east London.

Antonio has deservedly held the starting role in West Ham’s opening four Premier League games, with the 30-year-old offering more than his two goals through the Irons’ most shots (11), successful dribbles (8) and ground duels won (24), plus the second-most aerial duels won (14) and the fourth-highest number of accurate passes in the final third (21), per SofaScore.

Should Antonio ever prove ineffective, however, it will be Haller who Moyes is forced to call on, having seen hopes of signing AFC Bournemouth’s Joshua King fall flat when the Cherries snubbed a £13m offer.

West Ham also saw efforts and hopes to sign Gaetan Laborde from Montpellier, Michy Batshuayi from Chelsea, Luka Jovic from Real Madrid, Josh Maja from Bordeaux and Sardar Azmoun from Zenit St. Petersburg fail to materialise in adding depth to Moyes’ offence this summer.

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Haller will have a slim line of chances to impress Moyes outside of training now that West Ham have fallen out of the Carabao Cup after defeat at Everton, with the Irons not entering the FA Cup until the FA Cup Third Round in January.

Thus the £100,881-per-week Frenchman must utilise his brief cameo outings and time in training to set the right example of his talents to Moyes, otherwise Haller will be nothing more than a benchwarmer until the winter market arrives and West Ham can look to right the wrongs of the summer window.

AND in other news, West Ham potentially saved £16m in being snubbed by a summer target.