The January Transfer Window

Fortuneseeker

IronHerb, but we have had the much maligned Haller in the team?

alderz

Fortuneseeker said:

Really disappointed Haller has left. I shall now watch even more keenly how Mr “I win matches” gets on now he has got his way again with offloading a striker.

Just to clarify, are you saying you are more keen to watch West Ham play because you want to the manager to be proven wrong? I may have misunderstood your post and just want to be certain

buffybegood

Squad just keeps getting smaller and smaller. I don't think Haller was well suited to the Premier League, and so I'm not overly disappointed we've off-loaded him, but I think that takes us down to just 20 registered players (plus U21's which includes Rice and Johnson, but other clubs can also call on U21's), so we're trying to compete with only 80% of the squad of other clubs.

Regardless of the fact that he wasn't great, he was still a starter in Antonio's absence, so he must be replaced, preferably with better, or at least more suitable, player.

baracks_a_hammer

OldCastleSwift said:

So rounding up, that's £20.3m in Sullivan's pocket. Let's see what he does with it...

I think we might find he will be wiring it straight on to a Commerzbank account in favour of Eintracht Frankfurt

baracks_a_hammer

Haller on Ajax TV

“This is a club where I can compete in the Champions League and chase titles every season and it's that winning mentality that suits me”

Ouch....

ASLEFshrugged

baracks_a_hammer said:

Haller on Ajax TV

“This is a club where I can compete in the Champions League and chase titles every season and it's that winning mentality that suits me”

Ouch....

The truth hurts.

You could tell that Haller wasn't happy here...

alderz

Does that hurt? Are people hurt by that?

If anyone didn't realise that Ajax win more than we do and play in the Champions League more regularly than we do, then I'd be pretty surprised...

Fortuneseeker

alderz, of course I don’t want the team to be losing matches but I would like David Moyes to prove he makes the right decisions & thereby brings a successful era to the club. Given time I hope he achieves that.

OldCastleSwift

buffybegood said:

Squad just keeps getting smaller and smaller. I don't think Haller was well suited to the Premier League, and so I'm not overly disappointed we've off-loaded him, but I think that takes us down to just 20 registered players (plus U21's which includes Rice and Johnson, but other clubs can also call on U21's), so we're trying to compete with only 80% of the squad of other clubs.

Regardless of the fact that he wasn't great, he was still a starter in Antonio's absence, so he must be replaced, preferably with better, or at least more suitable, player.

Exactly this. Haller didn't fit Moyes' style (arguably he didn't fit Pellegrini's style either as he's best in a front two, so there has to be question marks over why we signed him at all), so him going isn't necessarily a problem, but as you say, he was our starting striker in Antonio's absence. When Antonio is absent from the starting XI again, which won't be long (Monday night, I expect), then where do we go?

I read a Tweet earlier that said in June 2019 we had Arnautovic, Hernandez, Perez and Carroll on our books, with Antonio as a makeshift striker if we needed him to play there.

Today we have just Antonio. Whatever way you look at it, that's poor management from the board, particularly considering we took a loss on all of those strikers (bar Arnautovic), plus this latest £20m loss on Haller.

ASLEFshrugged

Nah, it doesn't hurt. Instead of Ajax he could have gone to Celtic, Dynamo Kiev or Ludogorets Razgrad and got more Champions League football than he would with us.

Big fish, little pond.

I wish him every success, especially when Ajax come up against any one of the Big 6 Premier League clubs. Haller hat trick against Spurs?

Slacker

Maybe it’s just me but selling Haller is surely going to bump up the cost of any replacement?
Every club now knows how desperate we are to get a new striker in.
Obviously none of us really knows what’s going on behind the scenes but on the face of it it just looks like bad business practice.

ScotHammer

IronHerb said:

Let's see shall we. We haven't done too bad without our the two 'irreplaceables' Antonio and Masuaku have we?

Agree.

Why is everyone saying Masuaku is so good all of a sudden? Don’t get me wrong,. I quite like him., but he was poor last year as a left back, and it was said he needed replaced because his defending wasn’t good enough. He seems to now be “irreplaceable” if we play him at LWB., as he played well for a few games. Surely one of our left sided midfielders could play at LWB in a slightly more defensive role?

baracks_a_hammer

alderz said:

Does that hurt? Are people hurt by that?

If anyone didn't realise that Ajax win more than we do and play in the Champions League more regularly than we do, then I'd be pretty surprised...

There’s a bit of an undertone in there for me. Although it is entirely a guess, I wouldn’t be surprised if things had broken down completely between manager and player (and rightly kept entirely within the club) and therefore the Daves were keen therefore to cut their losses v quickly to avoid a situation where even getting £10m would have been optimistic

OldCastleSwift

ScotHammer said:

IronHerb said:

Let's see shall we. We haven't done too bad without our the two 'irreplaceables' Antonio and Masuaku have we?

Agree.

Why is everyone saying Masuaku is so good all of a sudden? Don’t get me wrong,. I quite like him., but he was poor last year as a left back, and it was said he needed replaced because his defending wasn’t good enough. He seems to now be “irreplaceable” if we play him at LWB., as he played well for a few games. Surely one of our left sided midfielders could play at LWB in a slightly more defensive role?

Masuaku is a very good wing back, IMO. Struggles at left back, but with Cresswell behind him in a back three, he doesn't need to worry so much about leaving gaps behind him when he attacks.

As for alternatives, Cresswell isn't quick enough to be an effective wing back in today's game (I can't remember the last time I saw him take on a full back), and do we even have a left-sided midfielder?

Johnson did a good job in there against Southampton and could probably cover that position well enough until Masuaku is fit, but ultimately we do need another modern left-sided player that can give us the option of playing three at the back more comfortably.

jay_in_cpt

Haller IMO was rather a flop.
He scored a few great goals and won us some games, but he didn’t show enough overall.
Top players should IMO be able to adapt, he didn’t.
If Antonio can adapt from a a championship winger to a premier league striker , then sorry but Haller should have been able to as well.

I didn’t get the argument we didn’t play to his strengths , he looked rather weak for such a big guy...
He always came across as a bit sulky and felt sorry for himself, like the world owed him , but IMO he didn’t try hard enough.
Saying all that I would not have sold him unless we had a definite back up....

ASLEFshrugged

ScotHammer said:

Agree.

Why is everyone saying Masuaku is so good all of a sudden? Don’t get me wrong,. I quite like him., but he was poor last year as a left back, and it was said he needed replaced because his defending wasn’t good enough. He seems to now be “irreplaceable” if we play him at LWB., as he played well for a few games. Surely one of our left sided midfielders could play at LWB in a slightly more defensive role?

Masuaku is good this season because he's playing as a LWB and it seems that he's a lot better there than as a LB in a back four.

As for our left sided midfielders if Moyes thought one of them could play LWB I'm sure we'd have seen it by now. Somebody suggested Anderson a while back as he played RWB in Italy but while he's been with us he certainly hasn't shown anything that would suggest he could play a more defensive role.

baracks_a_hammer

Totally without any substance at all, but how would people feel about an Issa Diop + Origi loan swap till the end of the season. We have just bought a centre back and we are in a curiously in a position where Diop would start for them even if not for us. And obvs Origi would get plenty of game time for us. Both clubs it seems are otherwise going to struggle to bring in additions

OutcastLondoner

ScotHammer said:

IronHerb said:

Let's see shall we. We haven't done too bad without our the two 'irreplaceables' Antonio and Masuaku have we?

Agree.

Why is everyone saying Masuaku is so good all of a sudden? Don’t get me wrong,. I quite like him., but he was poor last year as a left back, and it was said he needed replaced because his defending wasn’t good enough. He seems to now be “irreplaceable” if we play him at LWB., as he played well for a few games. Surely one of our left sided midfielders could play at LWB in a slightly more defensive role?

Masuaku's weak as an LB because he has lapses in concentration and loses the runner behind him when a cross comes in from the other side. It's almost always the same mistake. He's still a decent tackler and tracks back, while offering a lot in terms of taking us from defensive to attacking positions, which is something Antonio also did as a winger and can't do as much now he's a striker. The LWB position suits Masuaku perfectly. It would be nice if his crosses were better but that goes for everyone apart from Cresswell.

We've done alright without Masuaku and Antonio but we've not been as good as we were before.

alderz

Fortuneseeker said:

alderz, of course I don’t want the team to be losing matches but I would like David Moyes to prove he makes the right decisions & thereby brings a successful era to the club. Given time I hope he achieves that.

That's fair

I guess, for me, he's shown that he makes the right decision more often than not, and that is evidenced in us having our best season in the past few years.

baracks_a_hammer said:

Totally without any substance at all, but how would people feel about an Issa Diop + Origi loan swap till the end of the season. We have just bought a centre back and we are in a curiously in a position where Diop would start for them even if not for us. And obvs Origi would get plenty of game time for us. Both clubs it seems are otherwise going to struggle to bring in additions

That’s so crazy it might just work

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

Totally without any substance at all, but how would people feel about an Issa Diop + Origi loan swap till the end of the season. We have just bought a centre back and we are in a curiously in a position where Diop would start for them even if not for us. And obvs Origi would get plenty of game time for us. Both clubs it seems are otherwise going to struggle to bring in additions

Get on the blower to Sullivan immediately. This sounds logical, sensible and actually quite plausible.

Actually, maybe don't phone Sullivan then.

jay_in_cpt

baracks_a_hammer said:

Totally without any substance at all, but how would people feel about an Issa Diop + Origi loan swap till the end of the season. We have just bought a centre back and we are in a curiously in a position where Diop would start for them even if not for us. And obvs Origi would get plenty of game time for us. Both clubs it seems are otherwise going to struggle to bring in additions

I actually like this.....

No, hang on...sadly there is no way I would like to assist Klopp, even if it helps us....

alderz

jay_in_cpt said:

baracks_a_hammer said:

Totally without any substance at all, but how would people feel about an Issa Diop + Origi loan swap till the end of the season. We have just bought a centre back and we are in a curiously in a position where Diop would start for them even if not for us. And obvs Origi would get plenty of game time for us. Both clubs it seems are otherwise going to struggle to bring in additions

I actually like this.....

No, hang on...sadly there is no way I would like to assist Klopp, even if it helps us....

We tell Diop that he can double his wages when he comes back if he scores a bunch of own goals.

Win, Win, Win.

IronHerb

baracks_a_hammer said:

Haller on Ajax TV

“This is a club where I can compete in the Champions League and chase titles every season and it's that winning mentality that suits me”

Ouch....

But in fairness the Beeb reports - "The club's owners felt Haller did not fit the template manager David Moyes wanted, or that the 26-year-old had shown a desire to adjust to it.

(My bold and underline)

Tit-for-tat.

Still it's a bit of a shame we couldn't get more out of him but better still that we've got rid of him.

OldCastleSwift

IronHerb said:

baracks_a_hammer said:

Haller on Ajax TV

“This is a club where I can compete in the Champions League and chase titles every season and it's that winning mentality that suits me”

Ouch....

But in fairness the Beeb reports - "The club's owners felt Haller did not fit the template manager David Moyes wanted, or that the 26-year-old had shown a desire to adjust to it.

(My bold and underline)

Tit-for-tat.

Still it's a bit of a shame we couldn't get more out of him but better still that we've got rid of him.

I get that Moyes wanted him out, but I honestly can't believe that he would have sanctioned the move if he hadn't been promised a replacement. We must be getting one. Surely.

Brother_Sledge

Think that's poor from Haller - sounds like he is admitting that he thought we were never good enough for him to bother making much of an effort - which is pretty much what it looked like to me.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Seen that Haller knew about the interest from Ajax months ago probably why he has not exactly been putting himself about much in games recently

yoyo

Like all of us I'm disappointed he didn't make the grade, regardless of reasons, I was willing him on. Like most of us it was obvious it wasn't working and I shed no tears now he's gone.

Yeoldhammer

if we signing 35 year old Pelle as a replacement for Haller.....

baracks_a_hammer

Yeoldhammer said:

if we signing 35 year old Pelle as a replacement for Haller.....

Although a 35 yo Pelle might actually be more mobile

That said, we still haven’t recovered from the effects of the last Pelle, and it is too soon for another one to come to the club.

alderz

I don't really care the age of a player coming in now. If the club decide, for example, that a 6 month contract for Pelle and then signing King on a free in the summer is good business then I'm alright with that.

If we sign Pelle and don't sign another striker in the summer then I will be annoyed.

(Pelle has good hair. He's like a new Nocerino)