Over the years, West Ham United have wasted a lot of money on players who simply haven’t lived up to the expectations they arrived at the club with.
Nikola Vlasic is just one example, joining the club in a £32m deal including add-ons, before making just 31 first-team appearances, eventually departing the club just 12 months later for a fee in the region of £10m – resulting in a £22m loss.
Felipe Anderson is another player who arrived with huge expectations after his then club-record £42m move to the Premier League from Italian side Lazio.
Whilst the Brazilian made more of an impact than Vlasic, featuring in 73 games, he still departed for a significantly lower fee – returning to his former side during the summer of 2020.
Both players were undoubtedly a huge waste of resources, costing the club massively, but one player was just as poor during his time in East London but did still manage to recoup a significant fee in the process.
Andre Ayew’s time at West Ham
During the summer of 2016, West Ham moved to their new home in the London Stadium, with ambitions of becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League.
The move saw added investment, with the hierarchy splashing a then club-record £20.5m on the signing of forward Andre Ayew from Swansea City – eclipsing the £15m fee the club paid for Andy Carroll.
Given his price tag, there was undoubtedly hype around the Ghanaian’s move to the Hammers, but unfortunately for both parties, the move was unsuccessful.
Ayew moved to the club under former boss Slaven Bilic off the back of a campaign which saw the Hammers register a seventh placed league finish in 2015/16.
However, the forward only lasted 18 months under the Croatian after failing to make an impact at the London Stadium.
He registered 12 goals and five assists during his time at the club, before returning to the Swans in a £18m deal – with the club only losing £2m over the course of his spell with the Hammers.
His career has taken a sharp decline in recent years after departing West Ham, with the club making the right decision in offloading him back in January 2018.
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West Ham’s most expensive departures in history |
|
|---|---|
|
Player |
Fee |
|
Declan Rice |
£105m |
|
Dimitri Payet |
£24.4m |
|
Carlos Tevez |
£24.4m |
|
Rio Ferdinand |
£22m |
|
Gianluca Scamacca |
£21m |
|
Marko Arnautovic |
£21m |
|
Andre Ayew |
£18m |
|
Sebastian Haller |
£18m |
|
Stats via Transfermarkt |
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Andre Ayew’s career after leaving West Ham
Swansea were relegated the same season after Ayew rejoined, with his high wages needing to be shifted off the books, he joined Turkish side Fenerbache on loan for the 2018/19 campaign.
He subsequently returned to the Swans ahead of the 2019/20 season, enjoying a purple patch over the next couple of seasons for Steve Cooper’s side, registering 31 league goals as they twice narrowly avoided a return to England’s top flight.
He rejected multiple new contracts with the Championship side, moving to Qatar, before finally returning to the Premier League – reuniting with Cooper at Nottingham Forest for the second half of the league season in 2022/23.
Ayew only made 13 appearances, totalling just 307 minutes and subsequently being released at the end of the very same season, joining French side Le Havre AC on a free transfer last summer.
Despite scoring six goals in all competitions, it wasn’t enough to earn the Ghanaian a new contract, with the 34-year-old still without a club and remaining a free agent.
Given his rapid decline over the last few years, West Ham made the right call in allowing Ayew to return to his former side, taking the hit on the fee they paid, whilst preventing them from a further loss down the line.
He’s now coming to the tail end of his professional career, potentially nearing retirement after his failure to secure terms with any side for the 2024/25 campaign.
