Hail Haller the Hammer

Well, quite a lot has happened during my week on holiday. West Ham have made a really ambitious club record signing in the £45 million Frenchman Sebastien Haller. At the age of 25 he scored 15 times in the Bundesliga last season and had nine assists for Eintracht Frankfurt, which indicates he's a quality operator and a much more ambitious signing than, say, Saloman Rondon. He'll also be a much less moody front man than Marko Arnautovic. We might have to start being nice to the board at this rate. On the trivia front Haller is the second Sebastien at West Ham following Sebastien Schemmel. With Haller and Fornals in the side alongside Anderson, Lanzini, Rice and Yarmolenko there's cause for real optimism, even if the defence still needs strengthening.

Meanwhile Sam Byram has gone to Norwich for £750,000. He's terribly injury-prone but on his day a decent attacking wing-back, even if his defensive work needs to improve. But having paid £6 million for him WHU might have got a bit more out of Norwich at the current inflated rates. Still progress is being made with players being shipped out and exciting new signings coming in. None of which prevented losses to Man City and Newcastle in pre-season but the only purpose of these games is fitness. I'm already looking forward to seeing how Haller and Fornals perform against Man City.