News

West Ham United: ESPN pundit tears into Sebastien Haller

|
Image for West Ham United: ESPN pundit tears into Sebastien Haller

JJ Devaney has been speaking on the latest episode of Caught Offside on ESPN FC, and one of the topics he discussed was the worst signing of the season.

1 of 10
General view inside the London Stadium ahead of West Ham v Norwich City

To kick-off this quiz on David Moyes on the hard side, which club was his first game on the touchline at the London Stadium against?

Devaney decided that the worst signing made by any Premier League side in the 2019/20 season was West Ham United’s Sebastien Haller.

Here is what he said on the Frenchman:

“Sebastien Haller of West Ham United, record signing, £45m, seven goals in a struggling side, but three of those came in the opening weeks of the season.

“This hasn’t been good from West Ham’s record signing, rumours that they’re trying to offload him to Monaco make sense.

“You contrast his contributions with those of Michail Antonio and even Jarrod Bowen, and you see how they contributed to survival; it’s just not a good return on £45m.

“It’s been bad, it has been really bad.”

This is quite a damming assessment of Haller from Devaney.

Is Haller the worst signing of the 2019/20 season?

No, there has been worse

No, there has been worse

Yes, he has been dreadful

Yes, he has been dreadful

TIF Thoughts…

Haller arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer for £45m, and he is now valued at £32.4m (as per Transfermarkt), so if the Hammers were to sell him, they might lose money on the Frenchman.

Comparing him with his attacking colleagues at the London Stadium reveals that Haller scored three fewer league goals than Antonio and six more than Bowen, so by going off that, he didn’t actually do that badly.

However, after he scored four in his first seven league games, he then only managed a further three in 25 games, as he featured for just 115 minutes post-restart, though he did miss the first four games of the season’s resumption through injury.

Despite this, we don’t think seven goals is a bad return for Haller in the Premier League and to pick him as the worst signing feels a little harsh.

Share this article