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West Ham Calamity XI of the London Stadium Era

By Henry Tomlinson

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 26: Sébastien Haller of West Ham United during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Sheffield United at London Stadium on October 26, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 26: Sébastien Haller of West Ham United during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Sheffield United at London Stadium on October 26, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images) /
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Attack

Now for the attack! There’s no shortage of players that could lead the line for this side and even more if you look at the entire history of Sullivan and Gold’s record of signing strikers.

I have decided to take the players that have given us fans the most amount of hope and let us down the most with their performances in the claret and blue.

Striker: Simone Zaza

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 22: Simone Zaza of West Ham United reacts during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Sunderland at Olympic Stadium on October 22, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 22: Simone Zaza of West Ham United reacts during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Sunderland at Olympic Stadium on October 22, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /

Michy Batshuyai, Alexander Laccazette and Simone Zaza were all linked to West Ham in the summer of 2016 ahead of the move to the London Stadium. All three of these players ended up in England and in fact London, but only two of them have scored in the Premier League. Like to guess which one West Ham signed?

DING DING DING, it is the one who failed to score in all of his appearances for the club. Zaza was a complete failure for the Hammers. The Italian was supposed to be the superstar to take the club into the top six, but it was more likely the club would be in the bottom six if he had stayed up top.

Zaza’s time at the club was so bad that his highlight was a game against Crystal Palace where he put in a good shift, and that is about it.

Striker: Sebastien Haller

LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 29: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United celebrates after scoring his sides second gaol during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Southampton FC at London Stadium on February 29, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 29: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United celebrates after scoring his sides second gaol during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Southampton FC at London Stadium on February 29, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images) /

And now for a shock inclusion hear me out, I understand that Haller is a very talented footballer and could be an amazing striker for West Ham in the future. I also understand that there are less talented strikers that have played for the club such as Albian Ajeti, Jonathan Calleri and Jordan Hugill who could be deserving of a place in this squad.

But none of them cost a club-record fee only to be played in a system which does not suit him. The supposed replacement for Marko Arnautovic, Haller has scored seven goals this season. His output is so far behind what he was able to produce at Frankfurt – the reason behind his purchase.

Haller started the season very well but declined as the team had to adapt to dropping down the league. This decline means he must now play the second fiddle to 30-year-old Michail Antonio, who cost West Ham £38 million less than the Frenchman.

There is still time for Haller to play his way out of this team but for now, he has turned out to be far more calamitous for the Hammers for many reasons, some of which are not his fault.

Next. Manchester United VS West Ham: Match Preview and GSH Predictions. dark

I have based this line-up on a mixture of factors: The first being the ability of the player, secondly, if they repaid what the club invested and finally I considered how they have performed compared to the expectations of the fans. Please feel free to disagree with me and reply with your own calamitous XI in the comments or on our social media pages.

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