Let’s be real here – David Moyes made some shocking signings for West Ham United during his tenure at the club.
Don’t get me wrong, David Moyes brought many a top-class player to West Ham in the four-and-a-half years he spent during his second spell in charge at the London Stadium.
However, he made some big mistakes as well. Numerous players were signed by the Scot, and then used in unfamiliar positions.
Moyes was then forced to sell many players at huge losses – something that undoubtedly played a big role in his exit from the the Hammers.
David Sullivan’s son Jack recently lifted the lid on the main reason behind Moyes’s West Ham exit – the fact that the club felt like a big freshen up was needed at the top.
Julen Lopetegui has now replaced Moyes, and he is clearly prepared to work more closely alongside Tim Steidten than the Scot ever was.
Lopetegui seems to be intent on strengthening his squad this summer, but selling players at the right price will be crucial for him as well.
That’s something that Moyes rarely got right at the London Stadium…
Astonishing amount of players David Moyes sold at West Ham for a huge loss
This list makes for extremely painful reading.
We would be in so much of a stronger position now if Moyes had used the players he wasn’t keen on more regularly, and more importantly, play them in their proper positions.
Here are seven players West Ham have sold for massive losses over the past few years…
Gianluca Scamacca joined the Hammers from Sassuolo in the summer of 2022 for around £35 million (Sky Sports). The 25-year-old is a top-class striker, there’s no doubt about that. He didn’t suit Moyes’s system at the London Stadium one little bit though. Rather than mix things up and try to get the best out of the Italian, Moyes jettisoned him from the starting lineup and he was sold to Atalanta last summer for just £21.5 million (talkSPORT).
Next up is Nikola Vlasic, who will probably go down as the worst signing Moyes made during his Hammers tenure. The Croatian joined the Hammers from CSKA Moscow in the summer of 2021 for a deal believed to be worth £33 million. After a failed first season with West Ham, he joined Torino in the summer of 2022 on loan, and then made the move to Italy a permanent switch a year later for just £8 million.
Then we come to Said Benrahma who joined the Hammers on loan in 2020 before making his London Stadium move a permanent one in January 2021 for around £30 million (BBC). The Algerian was never Moyes’s cup of tea though, and was often criticised by the Scot in the press. During his final six months with the Hammers, he barely started and then left to join Lyon on loan in January of this year. He’s now set to join the Ligue 1 outfit on a permanent deal thought to be worth around £14 million (GFFN).
Next on the list is Pablo Fornals. The Spaniard was a hugely popular figure at the London Stadium after Manuel Pellegrini signed him for £25 million in the summer of 2019 (Telegraph). However, we never got to see the best of the 28-year-old under Moyes, after the Scot continuously played him out of position. Then Moyes inexplicably ostracised Pablo from the squad during his final season at the club. He left to join Real Betis for roughly £7 million in January of this year (Daily Mail).
Issa Diop is another who West Ham lost massive money on. The towering centre-back was signed from Toulouse in the summer of 2018 for £25 million (The Express), and looked like the real deal initially. However, he then became a real weak-link for us, and regressed badly under the guidance of Moyes. The 27-year-old eventually joined Fulham in a £15 million deal back in the summer of 2022. He’s probably the only one on the list who I’d say we got decent money for in the grand scheme of things.
The biggest loss of the lot is up next – Felipe Anderson. The Brazilian winger was an incredibly exciting signing for the Hammers, when he rocked up at the London Stadium after Pellegrini paid £41 million to prise him away from Lazio in 2018 (BBC). The now 31-year-old enjoyed a superb debut season with the Hammers, bagging 10 goals and five assists, but then he really struggled to produce the goods after Moyes took over in December 2019. His final months at the London Stadium were nothing more than an unmitigated disaster, as Moyes refused to play him. La Laziali claim that Lazio paid just £2.5 million to re-sign him in 2021 – a truly awful deal considering how well he performed for the Italians over the past three seasons.
Finally, we come to Sebastien Haller. West Ham signed the Ivory Coast international for £45 million five years ago (BBC). Much like Scamacca though, he was a poor fit for our playing style, especially after Moyes replaced Pellegrini. Sure, he didn’t run the channels like Michail Antonio does, but I strongly feel like Moyes never even tried to get the best out of him. The 29-year-old was then sold to Ajax in January 2021 for just £20.5 million (Goal).
Now, granted all of those players weren’t signed by Moyes in the first place – in fact, only three of them were.
However, it does highlight how the Scot was terrible at getting the best out of underperforming stars, and the way that he blatantly ostracised many of them was just unforgivable.
Had he shown more love and faith in the likes of Anderson, Haller, Scamacca and Benrahma, who knows what they might have achieved for us.
And worst case scenario, they certainly would have fetched higher fees, had the 61-year-old given them more game-time and belief that they were part of what was happening at the club.
Former West Ham manager David Moyes sold the seven players above for a combined £145.5 million loss – let that sink in.
Let’s hope that Julen Lopetegui is better than Moyes at not only signing players, but selling them as well.
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