In March 2008, West Ham appointed Gianluca Nani as their Director of Football, entrusting him with responsibilities for the academy, scouting, and transfers.
In 2009, the club raised eyebrows by signing German U20 player Savio Nsereko for a then-record £9m from Brescia Calcio, the Italian club where Nani had served as Sporting Director from 1999.
The Mirror reported that Brescia’s Club President, Luigi Corioni, was Nani’s father-in-law. Savio made just one Premier League start for West Ham. Karen Brady later wrote in her Sun diary column in November 2012, “The deal is something I’m investigating.”
Fast forward to 2024, and similar questions surround two of Tim Steidten’s signings.
Niclas Füllkrug, a German international striker, switched agents in January 2023 from Think Forward to ROOF, a firm acquired by United Talent Agency in June 2024. Speculation initially linked Füllkrug to Bayern Munich due to ROOF’s ties with Bayern’s football director Hasan Salihamidžić. However, Borussia Dortmund secured him for €17.25m in August 2023, later selling him to West Ham for €27m—a significant profit.
Now aged 31, Füllkrug earns a reported £90k per week on a four-year deal. Upon joining West Ham, he declared his goal was Champions League qualification.
Meanwhile, agent Kia Joorabchian has been linked to the signing of Luis Guilherme, an 18-year-old winger signed for €23m from Palmeiras. Guilherme had attracted reported interest from top clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Liverpool, though The Athletic revealed scouts from Liverpool, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich merely “monitored” his development.
David Moyes recently questioned West Ham’s recruitment process during his appearance on The Overlap, commenting, “I think there’s a lot of people making those choices who’ve not really got a huge professional career behind them or experience.”
Despite early doubts, both players deserve time. Füllkrug, an experienced international with a proven goal-scoring pedigree, could be an asset to Julen Lopetegui. Guilherme, still developing, needs game time—whether with the U21s, on loan, or even in West Ham’s first team.
by the way moyes also said on overlap that west ham never won anything in his lifetime until his win .that should be the last word on this waste of space.ENOUGH ON MOYES
Steidten is supposed to be able to analyse data and through that pick up as yet unrecognised potential…
Exactly how is he able to do that when the clubs recruitment has been so poor that he needs to bring in several players as a matter of urgency in just one window ?
He’s hardly been given a chance to do what he does.
It is the clubs poor recruitment over a period of time that underlies where we are now, it’s frankly amateurish to allow a situation to develop where so many players need to come in all at once.
Exactly John.
Our record in the transfer market has been woeful for ages!
Players like Andy Carroll, Jack Wiltshire, Kieron Dyer …..the list is endless!
For Tim to genuinely succeed he needs more windows and to be aligned with the Manager and be trusted by Sully.
Moyes / JLo and Sully unfortunately have made it blatantly clear they are not to be trusted when it comes to what is best for our club.
Blimey! Is C&H a fanzine or a Tottenham propaganda site? Steidten and WH deserves better than C&H. What about Summerville, Alvarez, Kudus, Todibo, Wan-Bissaka and Mavropanos.
They certainly fared better than Aguerd, Ward-Prowse, Cornet, Ings, Kehrer, Benrahma and Scamacca signed by Moyes. Signing players isn’t an exact science but implying corruption is just stupid…
☝️Add to that Kurt Zouma and Kalvin Phillips 🤦♂️
Trying to drive out Tim will be such a regressive move and return us to Sully / Salthouse and Moyes, yes Moyes signings if any credibility is given to Gonzo’s late news article last night!
Sully, pro Moyes football pundits and “top sources” are using their media outlets to stir up division.
We live in a world of disinformation, bad news, fake news and conspiracy theories.