Sebastian Haller confirmed to West Ham from Eintracht Frankfurt. I can't pretend to have known about him before but everything I'm hearing is he's a big improvement on Arnie and by all accounts even Maxi Gomez. Pessimism is my default position when it comes to all things West Ham but even I can't deny that our squad looks serious this season and I wouldn't be surprised if there's another big signing to come, especially if Diop goes to Man U.

------------------------------Fabianski
Fredericks-Diop (or Ogbonna/Reid if he's sold)-Balbuena-Masuaku
---------------------------Rice-Fornals
----------------Antonio-Lanzini/Wilshire-Anderson
------------------------------Haller

Top 6 is out of the question but I see no reason why that team shouldn't consider 7th place a realistic target .

Haller played in Utrecht before Frankfurt and was very well liked by their supporters. Can't say if he will be an improvement over Arnie, which one? Schwarzenegger? :)

Utrecht will still get about 4 million euros for the transfer. Don't know if he's worth that much money, he's still not playing for the French national team as far as I know.

West Ham's position means they'll always pay over the odds for players with any kind of reputation. That's just how it is.

He scored 19 goals in 27 appearances last season for Frankfurt and is supposedly a good team player with more to his game than just finishing. He can't squeeze past Mbappe or Griezmann but those are players on a different level altogether. West Ham are currently a mid-table team at best with aspirations to become a consistent 7th-8th placed one. Haller's at least at that level by the sound of things.

They had the draw for the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 WC yesterday, and it's amazing.

Australia v Jordan again, Iran v Iraq, Saudi Arabia/Palestine in the same group, Group E looking more like a cricket league than a football one, the massive derby of Group G, and North v South Korea in the same group...

by amazing you mean... comedy gold? you know, the cosmic type?

i wish i had some juicy intel for you re:haller, but the prem sucked me into its bubble and i have only very vague recollections of having seen frankfurt play once, or was it maybe twice... drawing a blank really. sorry.

The AFC is the best confederation, because this is just the second round. There's a whole second group stage after this! :D

hahaha!

would rep if i could

Honestly, the more research I do the truer this gets. I just found out about the 2018 South Asian Football Federation Championship - won by the Maldives(!) after they reached the knockout stage on a coin toss(!!!).

(Doing my research for some football stats projects.)

This is amazing.

Oh dear, lol.

So how do you see Everton doing this season? Surprised you haven't picked up a striker yet.

Hmm, I'm the same as you. Cautiously optimistic but ground down after years of slightly above average, or frankly terrible seasons. I'd like us (them) get to a final at least. Been a while since there's a been a good cup run and think that's gonna be the main way to measure success given the closed off group in the top 6.

Yeah, I think top 6 still picks itself (with the possible exception of Chelsea - minus Hazard, in the middle of a transfer embargo and with the random factor of a new and unproven manager) but there's a pack of teams below them where I'd put West Ham and Everton, along with Leicester and Watford that I see having their own little contest around the top half of mid-table. Be interesting to see if Wolves can be part of that too, or if they fall away (especially as they have to straddle League and Europe this time), and you usually get one newly promoted team having a stormer. I see that battle from 7th to around 11th being really tight again.

how about the relegation playoff finals? :D


(sorry, couldn't resist. Don't mind me, I don't know what I'm talking about)




on a sidenote: our Dutch Women's goalie will be heading off to Atletico Madrid

There's no relegation play-offs in the prem.

the carabobo final then

A Carabou cup would be nice but an FA Cup would be the real prize, and one that's always possible, even if your season's not going that well in the league. But priority for West Ham has to be solidifying upper-mid-table status. Anything after that is a bonus.

Oh my god. I just ruined my Sunday morning and gave myself a headache trying to understand via Wikipedia the difference between FA and EFL, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy and FA Cup, etc etc etc.
and I didn't sleep well last night, so even reading English is difficult. Finally I decided I'm just going to ignore English football for a full year :D


The prize money for EFL Cup is insane: "League Cup winners receive £100,000 prize money (awarded by the Football League) with the runners-up receiving £50,000"
You can't buy any reasonable good player from that money.

De Ligt made his debut yesterday for Juve in a friendly match against Intel Milan, and scored an own goal after 10 minutes :o
This is what press wrote: