HE was the £45million flop West Ham couldn’t wait to get rid of.
But now Sebastien Haller is joint top scorer in the Champions League – and a striker big clubs are looking at all over again.
Haller’s renaissance at Ajax after paying the Hammers less than £19m to take him off their hands last January was not a mistake by David Moyes.
While he scored one utterly spectacular overhead kick against Crystal Palace, finding the net just 14 times in 54 matches simply was not good enough.
There were few, if any, signals of disappointment from the London Stadium fans.
Yet in Amsterdam, where nine goals in five Champions League games so far have put the Ivorian alongside Mo Salah and Robert Lewandowski at the head of the charts, Haller has become a massive hero.
Ajax were supposed to struggle in their group. Instead, they were through after four matches, guaranteed to finish top after five.
And it is Haller’s goals, starting with four in the opening 5-1 romp at Sporting Lisbon and continuing by finding the net in every game to date, that has set the standard.
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The 27-year-old has 18 in 19 games in all competitions so far this term, after notching 13 in 23 games after his move last season.
Part of it may be the quality of Dutch football – Haller previously scored 51 in 98 games in three seasons at Utrecht – but that does not account for his Euro tally.
Ajax coach Erik ten Hag said: “Haller is mentally strong. He can handle stress well – and also disappointment. He doesn’t like it if I start him on the bench but his response is always peerless.”
Haller himself hinted at the group mindset under Ten Hag as a key – although West Ham’s progress over the past year suggests he might have been complicit in potential issues in east London.
He said: “Here at Ajax everybody tries to help each other and we have a mentally strong group.
“We know that we need everybody happy and enaged if we are to reach our goals.
“I don’t want to compare myself to Salah, Lewandowski or anybody else. I just hope this form never ends.
“I’m in a good phase now. So it’s down to me to keep working hard with my team-mates.”
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