West Ham United sold Sebastien Haller last year, and his Ajax form is leaving Michael Owen to question just how he wasn’t a Hammers success.
When West Ham signed Haller for £45million in the summer of 2019, it looked like they had finally found their striker.
Haller had impressed in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt and looked to be exactly what West Ham had been seeking.
Haller ultimately scored just 14 goals in 54 games for West Ham and seemingly wasn’t quite mobile enough for how David Moyes wanted to play.
Ajax pounced in January 2021, taking the former Utrecht striker back to the Netherlands, reuniting with his former boss Erik ten Hag.
Unsurprisingly, Haller has been destroying Dutch competition and has been thriving with Ten Hag again.
Haller, 27, has smashed 29 goals in 29 games this season, including a ridiculous 11 goals in seven Champions League games.
Haller is now one of the top strikers in Europe whilst West Ham still haven’t been able to find a replacement.
Maybe West Ham could have got more out of Haller, with pundit Owen left bemused by his failed Premier League spell.
Speaking on BT Sport on Wednesday night, Owen praised Haller’s ‘staggering’ goalscoring numbers, comparing them to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Owen added that Haller has now gone to a ‘total different level’ at Ajax and may actually be what West Ham need under David Moyes right now.
“He has that ability to withstand a challenge whilst scoring a goal. A lot of players like their own space, like to be able to finish without being provoked,” said Owen. “He can hold players off, he can use his strength and still get a perfect header. 10 goals in a group stage, it’s only Ronaldo who’s ever done that before. It’s a staggering number.”
“It just makes you wonder what happened at West Ham. I think he scored 14 in 54 for West Ham, so they’re not the worst numbers but he’s gone on to a total different level now. We were just discussing that West Ham probably need a centre-forward, if they didn’t have him before you’d be thinking, ‘you’ve got to go and get Haller from Ajax’, but it just shows you that it didn’t work at West Ham and he’s bounced back in no uncertain terms,” he added.
It was probably still the right decision from West Ham to sell Haller. After all, it wasn’t working for him in East London and there was no point keeping him if he wasn’t going to play.
West Ham do though need to replace Haller this summer, hopefully signing a striker who can score goals with the same regularity as Haller at Ajax.
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