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:

Mock-ups for the new Everton ground have been released. Supposedly it'll be finished for the 2023/24 season. Does look like it'll be an amazing ground.

was that the place that's like a block away from anfield or something?

please correct me if i'm wrong. my internet search is broken at the moment.

They're about a mile apart

And literally across the park from each other at that too.

:( Gueye has left Everton for PSG. Gonna miss him.

"Since making his debut for Everton in August 2016, Idrissa Gueye made more tackles (395) and interceptions (218) than any other player in the Premier League."

He's gonna be a real tough one to replace for sure.

Gueye will be a big miss. I know they're looking at that Gbamin bloke, who's meant to be excellent, but Gueye was the epitome of solid.

Aye, he was. However, in up news Everton have finally signed a striker! Miracles happen everyday. He's 19 year old called Kean from Juventus and from what I've read he's actually a decent player already. Here's hoping he can hit the ground running.

West Ham fans have been presented with 38 strikers "since David Gold and David Sullivan took over back in January 2010. Between those 38, only 203 goals were scored in a staggering 957 matches"

Well that's a rather depressing stat.

So a new season starts this weekend! Or already has if you follow the championship. Predictions? Thoughts? Expectations?

ive watched no news and therefore have no predictions, but i’d like for klopp to finally win the prem this year. if they can. i hope he built up the squad this summer (i’ll assume he did).

and best wishes with that juve kid.

i’m in the process of moving & moving & moving again, so i’ll catch up with the news as the season progresses (if i can).

Nah, Liverpool haven't bought anyone, save for a 16 year old. Man City have bought a new midfielder, and today a new full back. No idea what they're like, mind.

Moving, moving, moving? What the hella going on there? Moving closer to civilization?

And urgg, feel bad for that kid. He's had a rough start already. Hope people remember that he's only 18 or whatever he is.

It is, but without wanting to gloss over it, West Ham are similar to a lot of clubs now, in that they've become a lot more reliant on goals from midfield than from real out-and-out strikers. Arnie was really a false 9 and before that, Payet, Antonio, etc were definitely midfielders. It's true that pure strikers like Carroll and Chicharito flopped but fortunately goals came from elsewhere.


VAR will hopefully favour smaller clubs who've previously struggled to get decisions against the big boys.

I can see a bit of a mini-league forming of Everton, Leicester, West Ham and possibly Wolves, with whoever comes out on top having a real chance of breaking into the top 6, if only for a season. With Chelsea being most at risk of dropping.

Man City will be unstoppable.

A Rafa-less Newcastle will struggle.

My thoughts are the offseason is way too short

Ah nice! How's your Mrs about the whole wanting to live out of a carrier bag thing?

Nah, I'm definitely ready for the season to start. I actually resorted to watching the Audi cup (what? My thoughts exactly) last week. Even the winners Spurs could barely muster a celebration for winning that one.

honest? she loves it

So Everton have just signed a RB from Monaco. A player named Sidibe. "Ah great, a new rb. Just what Everton need!". I decided to have a look on the monaco forums to see what they're saying about the move. Always a bit disconcerting when the fans are especially happy to see a player go. Hope we haven't got a donkey here.

Sign of a solid relationship right there

everyone hates doing housework

it’s just a matter of finding out first-hand

Rooney will join Derby County in January as player / assistant coach to Philip Cocu. Just wondering why he choose that club, wouldn't there be a club in the premier league that would be interested in having him in the team?


good luck on the moving Symbols!