The transfer starting gun hasn’t yet been fired but teams both domestic and international are getting their main moves ready: West Ham approach the summer window with a recruiting team short of a technical director – whatever the title – a ‘closer’. With Potter and Macaulay not having completed deals themselves the club will be reliant again on Chairman David Sullivan to get the transfers over the line in the summer rebuild.
Things were so different twelve months ago: Tim Steidten was spending millions of the club’s money on players: £140 million in total with the Todibo deal and the Wan’ Bissaka ‘steal’ probably the hindsight highlights. Fullkrug’s transfer has already been the subject of enough comment without rehashing it all today.
According to In-The-Know Journo Fabrizio Romano today, Tim Steidten is heading back to top-tier football:
“Barcelona in talks with Tim Steidten to add former West Ham director to their management team”.
In his gloriously selective tweet Romano credits Steidten with the signing of ‘Florian Wirtz, Frimpong and Kudus among others” and of course doesn’t mention his mate paying double the going rate for Fullkrug or Guilherme.
Another ‘Marmite’ character, Steidten exhibited great skills in ‘closing’ deals but showed poor judgement (at best) when overpaying for some West Ham recruits. Unsurprisingly he was fired and left a legacy of a disastrously- mismatched squad at London Stadium in January, although Julen Lopetegui’s “picks” last summer were equally calamitous.
This move to Barca will be the classic case of ‘failing upwards’ in true Vincent Kompany style.
Some clubs would be looking over their shoulder lest a former Director come back for players signed during his tenure: I suspect West Ham would be delighted if Steidten came calling with a Barcelona hat on ( And Barca cash this time) for Alvarez, Kudus or Niclas Fullkrug!
I said at the time I thought we’d regret getting rid of Steidten. He told us it was a 5 year project and we gave him 18 months, most of his signings were either future proofing or stop gaps just for the time being.. now we’ve got Sullivan in charge again nothings gonna get done, or we’ll sign Ollie Watkins and Harry Maguire 😂
Todibos coming good at last, and Sully will probably sell him, Guilherme has looked half decent when he’s played and is young enough that he definitely has potential and will get homegrown to our club, AWB is hammer of the year, Summerville looked good and then gone done dirty with an injury, Kilman is solid but is I think a bit of a stop gap, obviously Kudus was quality in his first season, and hopefully we’ll get a decent bit of profit for him if we sell him, Alvarez was decent in his first season but is a bit rash. Mavropanos is a calamity no question 😂 Irving is the best player to have ever graced the Premier league 😂 Fullkrug has looked good when he’s played and has become a bit of a hero, just a shame about his injury record, but again, stop gap, Rodriguez isn’t all that but is another stop gap and I’ve liked Soler when he’s played but looks like we won’t be signing him permanently..
We should have let Tim carry on with his 5 year plan, it’s clear he knows what he’s doing, much more than Sully
Sorry now but enough of this steiden bashing @@@@@. The problem is and has always been Sullivan. If he’d given steiden 5m more we’d have signed Duran and not fulkrug. Kudus @@@@ season, but we all know his worth. young lad on loan in France is very highly rated.
Stop @@@@@Sullivan @@@@ and pissing everyone else off on the process
Vince if you cant make comments without being offensive you’ll not get the chance again.
Has Sullivan radicalised you Martin? Are you really that gullible or believe we are? You claim to be a fan but come across as a dwarf fanboy!
At least I post under my own name instead of some made-up anonymous e mail address. If you cant be even moderately respectful then you’ll not post anymore. Take your juvenile comments somewhere else. Thank you
27 percent owner Kretinsky is a hugely successful businessman who’s installed a director of football to modernize Westham and Sullivan has since sacked Steidten and dissolved the position . Kretinsky isn’t just going to do nothing . He’ll either sell his 27 percent before it devalues or team up with the new investor who acquires the 25 percent Gold shares . I’m sure that Kretinsky is tired of dealing with an old incompetent , meddling owner . Unfortunately for Westham if a takeover commences now chaos will ensure prior to what’s going to be a difficult season after a transfer window overseen by folks with no useful experience . Anticipating a total sh1t show through the summer and 2025-26 season culminating in relegation .
Wish him all the best. As a Director of Football then a couple of things are meant to come with that position- a say in bringing in a manager they feel would be able to utilise the players he brings in and an owner who lets them spend without obstructing them.
What he got here was a gnome who insisted publicly that Steidten would have complete control over transfers but it’s also publicly known that the manager he didn’t want at the club (who said gnome insisted on hiring against his wishes) was demanding he bring in certain players and an owner who not only refused to green light either transfer funds or wages to stop transfers, but also brought in players he wanted to sign too.
Now he’s working with Hansi Flick (who Steidten is known to have pushed for at West Ham) but seems the gnome apparently saw his multiple successes in both domestic and continental competitions in recent years paled in comparison to a guy who had a single top level trophy in his career. Incidentally, that single trophy was the 19/20 Europa League… Flick was picking up the Champions League with Bayern that year (something Pep failed to do) which was part of their 2020 sextuple where they won literally every competition they took part in during 2020 for the only time in their history.
And Flick went to Barca and won them the league and cup double and took them within an inch of the Champions League final.
But it’s good to see another article which condemns Steidten and ignores him being hamstrung in the role he was brought in to do.
“paying double the going rate for . . . Guilherme”
Eh what?
Over recent years, the top teams in Brasil have realised that their top talent had been undervalued and sold far too cheaply to (rich) European clubs. The prices demanded for top young talent have increased significantly – it might be suggested that the values put on the young players have gone from too low to too high . . . but if that’s too expensive for any European club, the message to them is to either pay-up or look at cheaper markets elsewhere.
It’s not gone unnoticed in Brasil that a significant number of players are valued / have been bought for more than €/£100m – the prices paid by European (and crackpot Middle Eastern) clubs is fuelling the global inflation of player values.
I should add that Steidten wanted Hans Flick not Lopo for the West ham job. He was overruled by Sullivan. Flick has just won the double with Barcelona. I think the Tim Steidten scapegoating needs to stop. He represented a fantastic opportunity that was totally blown by the owner. That’s all there is to it. And now he’s going, no surprise, to a top club. We could have been a top club but that dream is over, and it’s not the fault of TS.
Spot on mate. Steidten never really got the time needed. Toxic managers and chairman screwed up big time.
This site was pushing sullivans agenda scapegoating steidten and they continue to do so.
If he had full control we’d be in a much better place now.
Betrayed the fans and the club imo.
C&H are just puppets with their strings pulled by the dwarf. They always serve their’ master with stories that suit him & Brady.
Sean is the Chief Brown Nose but the rest are submissive little minions too!
Working in the right set-up he’ll continue to identify and recruit top talent like Kudus, Alvarez (pre-injury), Todibo etc. Fullkrug looks far from finished and Guilherme is clearly an exciting talent, and of course there are more. I think he’ll do well at Barca, and hope Macaulay does well for us. Fingers crossed he’s allowed to get on with it.
I Agree and I believe Guilherme is a hidden gem that will go on to be worth many times what Steidten paid for him.