David Moyes hailed for ‘stroke of genius’ signing of Tomas Soucek who could become ‘one of West Ham’s best’

David Connolly believes Tomas Soucek could well go down as one of West Ham United’s ‘very best’ signings and hailed David Moyes for his ‘stroke of genius’.

The Czech Republic international arrived at the London Stadium on an initial loan deal in January 2020 with the Hammers in a relegation crisis.

Declan Rice and Mark Noble regularly found themselves overrun in midfield under Manuel Pellegrini, while Sebastien Haller was struggling for goals up front.

However, since the 25-year-old made his first start in the famous Claret and Blue 12 months ago, Moyes has found a player to add both steel and substance to his engine room.

Soucek is West Ham’s top scorer this season with eight Premier League goals from midfield, also averaging two tackles and 2.6 clearances per game.

The former Slavia Prague captain scored eight goals in 17 matches before arriving in east London and covered an average distance of 12.69km after playing in all six of their Champions League group games – second only to former teammate Petr Sevcik.

Before West Ham travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham as part of talkSPORT’s GameDay coverage, former Hammers striker Connolly told Jim White the 6ft 4ins supremo could be one of the best signings in the club’s history.

“They had the loan first so they had a sort of ‘try-before-you-buy’ as long as they stayed up,” Connolly said.

“Obviously he was brilliant in that loan spell, but he has played almost exactly the same – he really has.

“He was a goalscorer at Slavia Prague, if you remember he played in the Champions League. He was excellent for them, they had a really tough group with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan and Barcelona.

“He scored in a couple of those games and he was getting a footing on Lionel Messi and people like that. He scored against Chelsea in the Europa League, a great header at the back post.

“So you have got to say it is wonderful, wonderful recruitment from West Ham. This has been a stroke of genius.

“He has got absolutely everything; he is the archetypal box-to-box midfielder and he gives them so many options.

“He does so much for West Ham as a team, with and without the ball, he has been an absolutely brilliant signing. You know what, he could go down as one of their very best.”