da jogodeouro： West Ham United’s stagnation since leaving Upton Park has been well documented.
da 888： Fan protests have been staged on more than one occasion as the promise of a brighter future continues to elude the club.
David Gold and David Sullivan have taken a large portion of criticism for both the decision to leave the Boleyn Ground and the transfer strategy since the move to London Stadium was completed.
And that’s without even getting into the recent and deeply unpopular appointment of David Moyes.
The squad assembled for Manuel Pellegrini last summer was one which some deemed capable of breaking into the top six. Following the departure of Marko Arnautovic, though, there was a gaping hole in the attack which needed to be filled.
Long term target Maxi Gomez eventually signed for Valencia, prompting the Hammers to move for Sebastien Haller, a towering forward with an impressive record in his final season in Germany.
Playing alongside Luka Jovic and Ante Rebic, two players who have since joined Real Madrid and AC Milan respectively, he scored 15 league goals and provided nine assists.
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It was a move that made sense on paper, but it’s a decision that already is leaving the owners with plenty to answer for, with legitimate questions regarding the long-term transfer plan and how that correlates with the footballing philosophy coming to the fore.
Having scored seven goals in 27 appearances the decision to sign Haller has not been as disastrous as Newcastle’s £40m acquisition of Joelinton, but he is already in danger of adding to a catalogue of transfer blunders which the club have accumulated since 2016.
2019 summer signing Albian Ajeti, who was signed for £8m, sits on a list of players who have cost the club a total of £67.5m in the space just four years.
And the most alarming thing about the graphic above is the proportion of strikers. Andre Ayew (£20.5m), Javier Hernandez (£16m) and Jordan Hugill (£10m) form a quintet of players – including Haller – who have, to some degree, flopped in east London.
One of the most fundamental and glaring issues with the five strikers is that no two players are the same, suggesting that there is no coherence between the decision-making at board level and the needs of the team.
Is the West Ham way facilitated by a poacher in Chicharito, a Championship marksman in Hugill, or does it simply rest upon the hope that the £8m budget signing will be able to emulate the goal scoring ratio he achieved in Switzerland in an infinitely more competitive division?
It’s too soon to write Haller off but the initial prognosis doesn’t suggest that he is a seamless fit for the club.
The 25-year-old’s display against Arsenal last weekend provided another concerning reminder of his struggle to find his feet in the Premier League. Though his link-up play and physical presence offered the club an outlet, he wasted one particularly golden opportunity to find the net when he took a laboured touch at the vital moment.
Either way, it’s fair to say his return of seven goals and one assist is far from the type of prolific form you would expect from a £45m player.
With the Irons staring down the barrel of a nerve-wracking relegation scrap, though, the Frenchman has the perfect opportunity to shift the narrative, fire the club to safety and ease fears over his potential to justify his extortionate price-tag.
We’ll have to wait and see how the suspension of Premier League football impacts the remainder of the season, however.