The news earlier that West Ham’s board are ‘taking back control’ ( that’s an interesting phrase, where have I heard that before?)of the transfer purse strings and power of veto on selections is recognition of a failure of the machinery to work properly in the summer transfer window.
However it could very well be the wrong prescription to fix the malaise.
Depending on your opinion, West Ham’s transfer window failures were down to Tim Steidten having too much influence over acquisitions, which led to Fullkrug and Guilherme coming to the club at a wasted spend of £50 million.
Alternatively there is the opposing view that Steidten didn’t have enough control and was prevented from signing Duran, Gyokeres and Cole Palmer. What a team THAT would have been.
Either way it seems from Gonzo’s earlier article that the three-way struggle between Technical Director, Chairman and Head Coach with each wanting ‘their’ players recruited is consigned to the bin. The board will have the final say (which in reality means majority shareholder David Sullivan).
Appropriately, on Christmas Eve – ‘The Three Wise Men’ they were not.
Steidten, Lopetegui, Sullivan- would have been perfect if they had all followed the same star instead of wanting their own!
The selection of players by both Chairman (Summerville) and Technical Director ( Guilherme) that the head coach didn’t rate and wouldn’t select was clearly and embarrassingly dysfunctional.
The appointment of Steidten was a condition – we think – of Czech Billionaire Daniel Kretinsky investing in the club: Quite how the diminution of ‘his inside man”s influence over potential repeats of predecessor David Moyes’ madcap spending will be received – we can but guess:
If I were Steidten I’d be browsing the ‘situations vacant’ column over the holiday period as West Ham go back to their tried and tested (and haphazard) formula of recruiting players.
Peace on earth, goodwill to all men, and David Sullivan back running recruitment at West Ham United again. Let joy be unconfined.
Merry Christmas, Hammers
So no striker again for the next ten years oh what joy to have a lack of ambitious. chairman as Sullivan is , it’s great being a West ham fan ⚒️
We are seventh by revenue but rarely seventh by performance, the difference in that is the measure of how well or how poorly the club is run.
Sullivan’s signings included Masuaku, O’Neill, Fredericks, Yarmolenko, Carroll, and Hugill among many. Duds. Cheaper end duds. Despite criticisms, Steidten has been heavily involved in the signings of several exciting players. He wanted Duran. But no. Penny Pinching Sullivan doesn’t possess the skills, knowledge or understanding to know a great player and a great bargain when he sees it. Forty million, even forty five million would have been a real bargain for a player worth eighty million now. Lance m
Well said Martyn, that has certainly brought out a few of the the anti Sully legions. Such a shame that after 60+ years the summer had bought a new feeling to me that things were on the up with a new Director and seemingly an effort to right the disastrous last year of Moyes. I guess i should have known better from the manager selection to the dealing about Duron had Sully handprints so what had changed, VERY little really and probably wont until there nis a takeover and i dont see Kretinsky excercising his option any time soon. No we are doomed to mediocrity for some time yet, but hopefully not relegation.
Oh crap, here we go again Sullivan has no idea about football , thought the idea was , technical director gets players , head coach trains them ect,what a cock up we get a head coach who doesn’t want to do that, Moyes all over again , we need someone who can inspire the players we have , not behind the scenes disparage them, why do we always end up with a list of players who apparently don’t fit who then move on and excell, perhaps they move to somewhere they get encouragement.
Sullivan needs to go he is useless and hand over to the kids, j lo should be sacked immediately and if we want to see what Tim is capable of with a manager who is working with him and there targets. At moment smells like Sullivan pulling the strings as normal and say what players to get. We all know he is useless at this so leave it to Tim and the new manager.
Sullivan has never had the clubs interests to heart and the only reason he took the club over was to get what he could not at Birmingham and that was to move them to the Euro athletic stadium but unfortunately for him Manchester won the bid and the rest for Birmingham is history as they are in a right mess and maybe now only just showing some green shoots of recovery. All Sullivan did was hitch up his bandwagon and come to West Ham and try and do the same regarding the Olympic Stadium and this time he got what he wanted as for the footballing side as long as we have enough to stay in the Prem league he is not bothered by Fans moaning just keep buying tickets you can say what you like as nothing will change with him and his side woman Brady making decisions over everybody elses interests
I agree he should GO and the sooner the better
The best Christmas gift that Kretinsky could give to Westham would be to take up that option to buy out Sullivan and then run the club in a professional way .
Amen to that !!
199% mate. It transfer strategy is going back to the board get ready for Marcus Rashford on loan, some 67 year old striker from a foreign league who couldn’t outrun a paper sail boat and the good lord knows who else. The board aren’t football minded, they’re business minded ffs.
Merry Christmas fellow Hammers, it’s about done down under but been a good one.
COYFI and here’s to us kickin on in 2025.
Before we completely write off a couple of Steidten signings , may we remember Guilherme was always bought for the future and fullkrug at the time had a top euros. We were never ever getting Duran! Maybe just a pointer to forest also who bought an unholy amount of players in the summer of 23 and were around the bottom this time last year….look at them now they have all settled in…
Well said
We’ll be signing all the crap from Bill Shithouse’s client list. Not even his best clients either. On top of that anyone that Sullivan ‘fancies’ – even if the manager doesn’t. See Summerville.
‘This club isn’t run like a circus anymore.’
Sullivan has had 20+ windows with countless managers and brought in 50 strikers. Name the successes.
Steidten has had 2 windows, without overall control and looks to have messed up one although 1 of his 3 picks seems ok. He’s been scapegoated or framed by Sullivan and Brady etc
He is now being given what looks to me like “constructive dismissal” by Sullivan and board to deflect blame.
The problem is Sullivan, the board not Steidten. Obvious to anyome with half a brain.
That poisoned drawf should just sell up now and take the halfwits with him enough is enough
“David Moyes madcap spending” is a bit harsh, he brought in some good and bad players like all his predecessors and Steidten. It has always been the same at West Ham
That poisoned drawf should just sell up now and take the halfwits with him enough is enough
The main problem is and has been since his arrival at West Ham is Sullivan he is the reason why we are in the position that we are he’s the reason we have a manager that appears totally clueless we have players getting into conflict with JLo it’s clear that JLo should have been sacked ages ago but Sullivan won’t want to pay compensation for termination of his contract with us so we are stuck with him for the foreseeable since Moyes left it has been one disaster after another don’t get me wrong I don’t want to see Moyes back but things have actually got a lot worse under JLo I didn’t think it was possible but between Sullivan and JLo the only thing we will win is relegation believe me it’s a real possibility one that if things don’t change we will be fighting for the rest of the season our only hope for the future is for someone who knows how to run a football club to buy the club as things stand we are a laughing stock
The only saving grace is Sully likely wont be around next Xmas and our club can be saved,
Fingers crossed. If he was a manager, player, coach or even administrative assistant in some back office role he’d be gone long ago. Bin him off.