West Ham United have enjoyed a much-improved performance last week or so in the Premier League, with Jarrod Bowen's talismanic ability on show once again in the 4-1 drubbing over Brentford, prior to Saturday's 3-1 win away to Everton.
Those victories have moved David Moyes' side into seventh place after 27 matches, with the Irons beginning to find their feet again following a worrying start to 2024.
No one would argue against the need for an upswing in form and sustained positive performance but it's important to remember just how far the club has come since Moyes was first appointed for the second time, building and blossoming into consistent European competitors.
And of course, triumph in the Europa Conference League last season took West Ham to new heights entirely, securing the first major honour since the 1980 FA Cup was gleaned.
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Impressive recruitment has facilitated the riches, with Bowen joined by the likes of Lucas Paqueta, Kurt Zouma, Tomas Soucek and, more recently, Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez to enable these lofty heights, but it certainly hasn't always been that way.
Littered through West Ham's recent history are misfires in the transfer market, with deals such as the move for Sebastian Haller proving to show just how far the club has come over these past few years.
How Sebastian Haller performed at West Ham
West Ham signed Ivorian forward Haller on a club-record £45m transfer in 2019, mere months before the inception of Moyes' lasting reign, but after scoring just 14 times across his 54 outings for the club he can go down as nothing other than a huge failure.
Having scored 20 goals and supplied 12 assists during the previous season with Eintracht Frankfurt, Haller was widely regarded as one of the most underrated strikers in Europe and West Ham's signing was a major coup, highlighting the ambition.
He did score seven goals across 24 Premier League appearances during his first year in London but failed to build on this steady base and actually degenerated under Moyes, who sold him to Ajax for around £20m a year-and-a-half into his West Ham career after posting just three goals from 16 league games during 2020/21.
He earned £75k-per-week during his stay in east London and this perhaps doesn't seem indicative of his club-record standing, though this is more down to the fact that West Ham were in a very different state before the 2019/20 campaign and only three players topped his earnings.
Andriy Yarmolenko
£115k-per-week
Jack Wilshere
£100k-per-week
Felipe Anderson
£85k-per-week
Sebastian Haller
£75k-per-week
Pablo Zabaleta
£75k-per-week
It's remarkable how this list of stars contains, largely, players who have left mixed memories in east London. Felipe Anderson was excellent during his first campaign but suffered a sharp decline ever since, while Jack Wilshere's injury-ravaged career suffered little respite with West Ham.
Haller, too, might be considered a poor acquisition in hindsight but he might just be trumped by Andriy Yarmolenko, who took home a staggering £115k-per-week salary despite proving to be inconsistent, worse even than one-time record capture Haller.
Why West Ham signed Andriy Yarmolenko
One year before Haller's arrival, West Ham signed Yarmolenko from Borussia Dortmund in a transfer worth £17.5m, which was seen as a good piece of business for an experienced winger – aged 28 at the time – who captained Ukraine and had flourished in his homeland with Dynamo Kyiv.
His sole season in Germany was marred by injury that had restricted him to just 26 appearances in all competitions, posting six goals and six assists apiece.
Such issues would prove to lay waste to his early exploits in England too and Yarmolenko was hit with a ruptured Achilles tendon that limited him to just nine showings for West Ham across his debut campaign.
Regarded as a "monster" for his nation by the Evening Standard's Simon Collings, the hulking 6 foot 2 star had much quality; he was direct and dynamic with a mean left foot and natural spatial awareness that provided all the tools for a successful career in the Premier League.
Unfortunately, repeated setbacks across his four seasons in London would limit him to just 86 fixtures in all competitions, having scored 13 goals and added seven assists during that timeframe.
And when comparing his £115k-per-week wage with the £17.5m transfer fee, it can even be observed that Yarmolenko bled West Ham around £41m during his stay, despite failing to ever muster a real run of form, restricted to sporadic moments of quality.
While Yarmolenko's woes could largely fall into the fact that he couldn't muster up enough fitness, it's hard to argue that he wasn't one of the worst pieces of business in recent memory, especially given the sizeable salary that eclipses even that of present-day wide phenom Mohammed Kudus.
Higher salary than Mohammed Kudus
Kudus arrived from Ajax for £38m last summer after the London Stadium side's Conference League triumph and he has proved to be a prolific success thus far, having scored nine goals from just 30 games in all competitions.
Five more goals before the close of the campaign would see the Ghanaian surpass his Ukrainian counterpart in his first term, all the while pocketing less earnings with a £90k-per-week salary.
Not just a goalscorer, while Kudus does rank among the top 5% of attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for goals scored per 90, as per FBref, he also ranks among the top 7% for successful take-ons and the top 4% for tackles won per 90, highlighting the application and tenacity that has won over the Irons faithful in such short time.
Ultimately, Kudus' signing marks a change in the winds down at West Ham, with more precise, exciting and impactful acquisitions being made.
Players such as Yarmolenko and Haller have real quality in their feet, like Kudus, but the difference is that now there is a direction and unity in the squad's progress and that has been reflected through the recent success.