David Moyes is a guy who refuses to speak ill of anybody and he was in no mood to change his attitude when questioned on the Seb Haller sale.
Sadly the striker would be described as a flop by most of us but that’s not the sort of talk you get or expect from manager Moyes.
Instead, he paid his own little tribute to the guy when asked – given his striker worries – he had any regrets about selling him.
And he made it clear it was a financial decision and that he couldn’t see any bigger transfers in a very quiet window.
Speaking to reporters he said: “I said right at the start that to sell Seb in this window was not the given plan, which we thought at this time was a good offer.
We didn’t know if we’d receive that offer later or at a time to suit us so that was a decision we had to make.
At football clubs you have to make decisions. Some are unpopular, some don’t go right and quite often some of them work very well.
This is a decision we had to take at that time. We enjoyed having Seb, he helped us score some goals and win some points, got us in a really strong position, so the offer came and to be fair I don’t know if there have been many bigger sales in this window.”
There weren’t any bigger sales as no one else let their players go.
Most clubs have 3-4 forwards and didn’t fancy being left with 2-3 for the season.
We took the cash knowing Ant always has injuries, every season since he signed.
We rolled the dice thinking clubs would take the cash, but unlike West Ham, they all put their own squads needs first.
Only time will tell if it was a good idea. If Ant gets an injury now that keeps him out for 2 months we’ll do well to make the top 10.
5 or 6 places in the table is circ 15m in prize money plus possible Europe next season.
That’s the reality of the gamble, prize money and glory vs taking cash now…
they don’t as they would have to invest, want to coast along until 2023 and sell up.
That does not move with the 70 million invested in Haller and Anderson does it?
Totally agree with Moyes’s position regarding Seb Haller, there should be no need for speaking ill of him. He’s not the first transfer to have failed and he won’t be the last, it’s just that I don’t think that British game was a good fit for him, in my opinion. Pellegrini didn’t carry out the due diligence required when you carry out a purchase of that size… best of luck to Haller.
As for his sale, I understood at the time, that it was a decent return despite the big loss, and it was still an offer that we couldn’t afford to refuse. We were NEVER going to get back what we paid for him. Without covid, we may have been able to get a bit more for him but in this present climate I still don’t think we have seen the market bottom out yet and add Brexit to the mix, the worst could be yet to come.