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Inevitably since the departure of Sebastien Haller from West Ham to Ajax, speculation has been rife with regards to who, or whom, would be replacing the catastrophically unsuited to the Barclays Premier League dud. There are as you would expect names a plenty being mentioned, so we have decided to list them in a two part article, the first list of which follows and is alphabetical:

Patson Daka is a 22 year old striker currently with Red Bull Salzburg, whose agent is ex-hammer Frederic Kanoute. It is claimed that West Ham are interested in the youngster who has scored 15 goals in all competitions this season and is keen to move to the Premier League, he would cost around £15 Million.

Real Madrid's out of favour striker Mariano Diaz is available and tentative negotiations for a loan deal have begun, the 27 year old has struggled since making his £23 million return to the Bernabeu from Lyon in the summer of 2018. At Real it hasn't worked out for the Dominican ace, however he proved during his time with the Ligue 1 outfit that he has what it takes to cut it at the top level as he scored 21 goals in 45 games for the French club. A loan deal for Diaz would be relatively inexpensive, and might suit all parties.

West Ham are also said to be interested in Celtic striker Odsonne Edouard but apparently the 22 year old has shown no interest in coming to the London Stadium, preferring to angle for a move to Hammers' more illustrious and wealthy Neighbors Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. Of course the opportunity of being in the starting line up regularly would appeal to the French Guianan, but perhaps David Moyes wouldn't want to sign a player who saw West Ham as his fourth choice of destination. A fee of £22 Million been mooted.

And finally, we usually like to save a 'whopper' for last, it is alphabetically last as well, apparently the Irons are going make a bid for Watford's £30 Million rated Senegalese flyer Ismaila Sarr, utter tosh, especially when it transpires the original source was those bastions of honesty 'Lady Muck's The Sun! - Ed

More in part two.

Hot on the heals of the Haller 'loss bombshell' incurred by the striker's move to Ajax, word has reached us from a disgruntled member of staff that the 'deal' wasn't quite as straight forward as it first seems. The world and his brother have 'lumped on' about the huge financial loss, including ourselves, however it now transpires that West Ham insisted on a 'massive' sell on clause, rumoured to be 20% but it could possibly be as much as 25%, in order to sanction the deal.

Of course there will still be a massive loss, but eventually it may be mitigated should the Irons receive the 'brucey bonus' from a sell on, provided Haller doesn't continue to play with the lack of passion while he was at the London Stadium. The club have been rather coy with regards to the exact details of Haller's transfer, with the official statement being surprisingly short. "West Ham United can confirm Sébastien Haller has joined Ajax on a permanent basis.The Ivory Coast international centre-forward ends his stay with the Hammers after making 54 appearances in all competitions and scoring 14 goals across 18 months, following his summer 2019 arrival from German club Eintrecht Frankfurt.The 26-year-old returns to the Netherlands, where he previously spent two-and-a-half seasons with Utrecht. West Ham United would like to thank Sébastien for his contribution to the Club and wish him all the best for his future career.

It should be noted that there is no mention of the fee, how it will be paid, and what sell on details if any. Usually clubs hide behind the 'undisclosed fee' statement when the details of 'sensitive' transfers are made available, but there wasn't even a mention of that. We have even heard that Ajax are going to pay the transfer fee in instalments! Albeit over a twelve month period, as opposed to the up to three year period involved in many European transfers.

The club statement regarding the departure of Haller is hardly a shining accolade, possibly one of the reasons for which being Haller's first interview following his move to Ajax, during which he made it plainly obvious that the move had been in the offing for some considerable time. “To be honest it’s already a few months, a few months that I knew it (about the move to Ajax). So I always stay in contact with the coach, we spoke because we know we had a good relation before in Utrecht. We always spoke between each other so of course when I knew that the deal was possible, I was happy. I just had to be patient with the situation, then things were possible so they made the move.”

These words will not go down well with Hammers fans, many of which questioned whether the player wanted to be at the club, well they have their answer now, his lackadaisical approach always looked as if he wasn't interested in playing the lone striker rule, and apart from the odd spectacular goal, fans were more used to seeing the big Ivorian fall over on his backside after hardly being touched.

Haller will probably be a success in the less demanding Dutch League, his value will more than likely go up again, and Hammers might just recoup a further £10 Million in sell on fees, that is of course assuming that the information we received was correct and they DID have the good sense to insist on a healthy sell on Premium, they wouldn't be so stupid as to not, would they? - Ed

NB: Andy Carroll cost the Irons £236,440 per match to appear over the course of seven injury plagued seasons, with each of his goals costing £1.5 Million, total cost, a staggering £54 Million in wages and transfer fee of £15 Million! Haller's brief spell cost the club £550,000 per appearance, each of his goals costing just under £2 Million! Fortunately Haller wasn't at the club for a lengthy spell, otherwise the figures could have been even more damaging.