West Ham will appoint a head of recruitment and introduce an entirely new process in signing players this summer.
Additions are being made to the scouting team as the club try to correct past errors and that will involve a major input from the manager.
A well placed insider has told ClaretandHugh that the much touted idea a director of football would be appointed was not a line put out by the club but the media.
And that seems to be the case after David Sullivan had told West Ham TV on March 13 and reported here: ““I want to set something in, a procedure, a set up that will long term deliver better. Only the manager can sign players. Going forward, we are going to completely re-jig it.*
I am going to delegate the whole thing to a huge new analysis system and a new head of recruitment, massive video analysis department, increase the scouting, where every player will be looked at five or six times.
“We we won’t be signing a player based on who the manager has never seen play.”
That is still the plan with the manager making it clear he wants no director of football at the club where issues can become confused.
The director of football idea appeared first in the London Evening Standard last month and was then picked up generally by the rest of the media.
The Standard report said: West Ham will appoint an experienced director of football at the end of the season in a bid to head off criticism from fans of their recruitment strategy”
But today our own source said: A director of football was never mentioned by us. It was a media myth. We will be gearing up only for a recruitment head and change of process as we explained in March.
The manager has to have a major input on signings and there’s an acceptance that none will be bought he doesn’t want.”
Moyes himself is aiming at the same sort of relationship he enjoyed for years with Everton boss Bill Kenwright where the two worked a great relationship in all areas of the club.
And he told the Evening Standard soon after joining the Hammers: “We’ve put together some plans, we are going to try to look at it slightly differently. I’m going to be heavily involved in the process, as will be the chairman.
“I’ve not seen a process here, so I’m going to try something. There is no criticism, though. We have signed some good players, so whoever got them deserves credit. It’s going to come away from the chairman a little bit, he’s going to stand aside.”
Thanks for clearing this up Hugh.
So Sully is still hands on then, with the data centre providing more stats, the manager identifying the prospects, aided and abetted by the scouting team on their whereabouts?
In theory it should work, but how effective is the modus operandi when a potential gem comes onto the market very late into the transfer window? Not knocking the new system before it’s up and running , just asking for more clarity. Also, will we still negotiate lower fees than the selling club require, even though we will be theoretically more clued up on the incumbents ability to adjust to our requirements. Interesting summer and winter transfer windows ahead.
Hugh. Do you read what your going to post beforehand?
The first line of your post says that we will appoint a DOF then the rest of the post says we won’t !! Make your mind up.
We just want the board to sell up that’s progress and as for dithering Dave moyes and kenwright they achieved what may I ask with not many quality players in how many years ?
Hugh any chance of getting posters that actually are not up the boards ar-e like Sean and have a different viewpoint to Tory boy on matters. Er no not me mate this geezer swears too much for your ears thanks
Absolute tosh!
From the minutes (available online and agreed by the club) of a recent SAB meeting – “Karen Brady confirmed that the club have assessed some of the concerns that have been raised by supporters, including the appointment this summer of a Director of Football to handle the transfer policy”
When will the lies stop?
so they are replacing tony henry with a new head of recruitment. something that had to happen anyway. makes no difference if you call them head of recruitment or director of football really. they replace sully in contract negotiations i assume, but behind the scenes its still going to be sullivan pulling strings and signing the cheques. he wont be able to keep his nose out. guaranteed.
That all sounds good on paper but past exploits in to this system have shown that it takes 2/3 years to show prosperity. Which in turn means that for the next 2/3 seasons (in theory) we are going to stand still with the possibility of only slight improvement.
In one sense that’s fine as it means we won’t be relegated but it’ll take a few years to become a regular contender of finishing in the top half. Which in itself is not a bad thing as it will show progress, ambition and building from secure foundations. All good so far.
What worries me is that DS/DG are still controlling the purse strings. We’ve all seen last season how much the price of a decent CB or CM has jumped let alone the cost of a 20 goal a season striker, so when you start scrolling through the results of the video technology and statistics on each player, you won’t be shopping in the bargain bin anymore. Will the owners buy in to this? Just my own opinion that i would like to see it implemented but it’s only going to work if all sides are singing from the same song sheet.