Huge Windfall From 'Haller Horror Show'

The gnashing and grinding of teeth generated by fans seeing Hammers flop Sebastien Haller 'ripping up' the Champions League could be heard from Stratford to Braintree, a situation made worse by the ever increasing 'positive' exploits of the 27 year old Ivorian striker sold by West Ham to Ajax for an initial £23 Million loss.

Watching Haller receive accolades from near and far has left many fans feeling the club made an atrocious error by letting Haller go, but all is NOT as it seems! Although Hammers DIDN'T add a goals scored clause in Haller's contract of sale, the club DID insist on a healthy *25% sell on fee which at the time many thought worthless.

It's funny how things can change isn't it? The value of the sell on clause is now the subject of much attention, particularly with the recent news that Sebastien Haller is being lined up to replace £150 Million superstar Erling Haaland at Borussia Dortmund. The much sought after 21 year old is expected to leave Dortmund next summer and join any of a list of prominent clubs including both of the Manchester clubs as well as Chelsea and Liverpool.

Rumour has it that Ajax will demand in excess of €50 Million from Dortmund for Haller, Sport Bild have reported that despite being happy at Ajax, Haller IS willing to make the move because he had always felt 'comfortable' in the Bundesliga and really enjoyed his time at Eintrecht Frankfurt, having moved there from Utrecht as a youngster.

The €12.5 Million Hammers could receive will go some way to compensating for what was a bad experience for ALL parties involved, it would draw a line in sand and see Hammers loss reduced to around £10 Million from the 'Haller experience', not good but better than it looked.

Haller's increase in value has only just put it back to where it was in the first place, a lesson learned and one that hopefully new head of recruitment Rob Newman will not need to take on board, because he will already know the pitfalls of signing a player who 'looks good on paper' but is unsuited to the environment where they are going to have to play! -Ed

*PS: There is some conjecture that the sell on fee was ONLY 20%, however there is further conjecture that there was NO sell on fee at all! We will be contacting the club to try to clear up that particular point and print their response as soon as we receive it.