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Haller/Ajeti boast fine injury records as ‘Chich’ exit looms

Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to allow Chicharito to leave the club for Sevilla – assuming a successful medical – looks on the face of it to be a high risk gamble.

Ok, it may be true that the Mexican has failed to tear up a single tree since he arrived at the club as our highest paid player.

But given Michail Antonio’s three to four month lay off, it means an injury to either Seb Haller in particular or  Albian Ajeti would seemingly put us in total schtook unless of course the boss has a clever safety net stored away up his sleeve!

It’s a decision that will no doubt be discussed for a while yet with the Hammers collecting a near €8 million fee – half of what we paid for him with only 10 months left on his contract.

The financial advantage is obvious, given he would be out of contract and a free agent next summer, but Pellegrini’s decision would appear to leave us on thin ice should injury intervene.

Happily, however, both Haller and Ajeti have excellent track records with injuries and hopefully that will continue for a long while yet.

Haller has missed just 35 days in his professional career according to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sebastien-haller/verletzungen/spieler/181375 and one of those was a 10 day absence after dental treatment in 2017!

The other was last season when he was out for 35 days between April 1 and May 6 when struggling with an abdominal strain.

Ajeti, meanwhile, can boast an even better record having missed just 32 days with a couple of unknown injuries since the 2017/18 season according to the same source.

There were various factors which were no doubt taken into account before Pellegrini decided to let the Mexican go, one of which may have been an often cool attitude towards the club.

Ok, he was never an Arnautovic in terms of attitude and behaviour but his huge wages – which brought a ‘superstar’  feel in the dressing room – may have helped the decision to let him go.

Having played second fiddle to the Austrian and then seeing Haller take pride of place up front, Chicharito’s desire to return to a Spanish speaking country for regular first team football avoided any dressing room tensions.

That he had put in a transfer request last week demonstrates the issues that may have followed had the club said no and thus the decision was taken – assuming a successful medical.

Right or wrong we move on and the injury records of the two strikers left giving reasons for hope while of course keeping our fingers firmly crossed for them both.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

6 comments on “Haller/Ajeti boast fine injury records as ‘Chich’ exit looms

  1. Well it will be a good test of the theory that West Ham have an ‘injury curse’. I would never subscribe to such superstitious nonsense of course, but it will be interesting to see if it all goes horribly wrong (as if it would……)

  2. On the plus side if he goes it free’s up a spot for either a left back or CDM, Rice as an England international with the homegrown rule is probably most attractive to buy and I am not sure if we do well this season the traditional top 6 won’t start trying to buy the players that threaten them, Anderson, Lanzini, Rice, Haller, Diop, Fabianski all of whom would challenge first team positions at other clubs. This makes strengthening certain positions like CDM and if Haller continues as he has started CF key either in January or the summer. Chicharito would have been leaving in the summer anyway so £7 – 8m is a sensible business decision that allows us to continue to move forward even if it is happening at a sub-optimal time for MP isn’t it ?

  3. Would it be worth a punt on Wilfred Bony if he could prove his fitness. He is a free agent with a top pedigree.

  4. NO NO NO NO NO WILFRED BONY better off getting Hugill back if he aint tied up for a year with QPR ..not sure if needed we could recall him..please advise. ..

  5. That’s wonderful to hear but what about suspensions and loss of form? A Haller red or Ajeti loss of form and we are in trouble up front…

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