West Ham United have enjoyed two seasons of unparalleled success in their recent history, as they finished sixth and seventh last year and the year prior, both of which earned them European football for the following seasons.

They would then very nearly take full advantage of it last year during their Europa League run which ended in a semi-final defeat.

Irons boss David Moyes has worked miracles, but this season has seen it come crashing down.

Reinvesting heavily in the summer, the Scotsman diverted from his usual path of finding unknown talent to instead scour Europe's top leagues. Gianluca Scamacca and Lucas Paqueta stand as obvious beneficiaries of this. 

However, it seems this change in transfer tactic has not only stuttered the growth of those already at the club, but those highly rated youngsters have in turn struggled to adapt to the Premier League. As such, the Hammers find themselves fully immersed in a relegation dogfight.

One of those who has suffered is Tomas Soucek, as his performances have only regressed since his blistering debut campaign.

Joining for a fee of around £15m back in 2020, his partnership alongside Declan Rice was instrumental in an outstanding campaign in which they recorded their best league finish since 1999.

The Czech Republic international offered a fine creative foil to the defensive foundation his English teammate brought, which allowed him to score ten league goals whilst earning a 7.16 average rating.

This has since declined to 6.96 for this current campaign, in which he has just one goal to his name. His offensive impetus has waned, which has seen him revert to a more defensive role. This has left Moyes' team as one of the lowest scorers in the competition, with just 18 goals after 21 games.

Not only have his goals dried up, but his "awful mentality" was lambasted by journalist Alan Rzepa after he lost the ball and refused to try and win it back in their early-season loss to Everton.

Despite this downturn in form, his value has surprisingly skyrocketed during his time in Claret and Blue.

As of April 2020, whilst on loan at the club, his market value sat at just €12m (£10.6m). However, fast forward to three years on and this has grown to a remarkable €45m (£39.9m). It marks a meteoric 276% rise during his time at the London Stadium.

Given how his importance to Moyes has slowly disappeared, perhaps he could look to take advantage of this by cashing in this summer. There is little future for the 27-year-old should Rice stick around and Paqueta begin playing deeper, but there is clearly an enormous amount of money to be salvaged with his sale.

Whilst it might seem harsh after how he had first impressed, those moments of quality have become too inconsistent. For the touted fee, his exit must be sanctioned.