The circumstances surrounding Tony Henry’s departure from West Ham have cast another long shadow over the club but I now see a silver lining!
We are not at the end of the ‘Africagate’ affair with the Football Association wanting sight of e mails at the heart of the affair.
There may be others which we have not seen and probably never will given the FA remains as silent as a monastery on most matters.
But despite the nature of the departure and circumstances surrounding Henry’s rapid farewell I believe there is a big upside for the club whose recruitment process over the last few years has left far too many questions unanswered and led I believe to some poor decision making.
I have argued consistently that the manager and his staff alone should be responsible for signings and that the appointment of a “recruitment director to the board” caused far more problems than it would ever solve.
David Moyes is a very tough operator, the latest example of that being his treatment of big crowd favourite Michail Antonio, and we could now be standing on the brink of a tough new manager-led regime in all on the pitch matters.
I believe the Scot will insist that if he is to remain in charge of the club then he – and he alone – will be the one making the decisions on who arrives and leaves the West Ham dressing room.
And that in turn will mean David Sullivan will need to step back from his overly hands-on role as de facto Director of Football and instead concentrate on clinching deals for players recommended solely by the manager.
Should Moyes need a technical director who works on matters affecting the first team squad, the academy and on scouting matters he should be allowed to appoint his own rather than have a chairman in place who sees that as his job. That man could be Terry Westley!
Henry’s departure in circumstances which, for a while had me ashamed to be a Hammer, is the latest example of how the West Ham brand has become more than a little toxic and not one that would attract many – if any buyers.
But it could turn out to be the blessing in disguise for with the manager is in a position to show his true mettle and that could see some straightforward talking taking place between him and DS where he makes it clear that he – and only he – will have final and only say on recruitment if he’s to stay in the east end.
I hope it happens.
COYI
Moyes already has the power to decide who comes and goes, as he has admitted himself.
What it actually does is weakens our scouting and recruitment capability, and the club in general.
Moyes will stay in his role and we will need now to bring in someone to do Henry’s job; and very quickly.
If the club are thinking of bringing in a Director of Football, it could be they do it now, also covering Henry’s. I don’t think it will change Moyes’s position, except he has lost someone who he trusted and has worked with a lot over the years.
One thing Moyes knows is that Tony Henry has never been a racist. He helped to bring in Mario and Afolayan in the last 2 weeks.
Agree with that Sleeps, although what Henry said damaged the club, I don’t think many would think him racist but his comments were racist and for that reason he had to go or it would have been much worse for the club. He by all accounts is an excellent scout so will need to be replaced with someone hopefully of equal quality.
Well your opinion on Moyes having all the power is certainly not a view held by thousands including myself. You might of course be right.
Or at least for the next 3 months
lol possible, but I still think that as their prefered choice from early days, he already has his feet under the table, and only a total catastrophie will change that.
I would be happy to have him there for the next few years to establish a solid base to work from. I think he has been underestimated and could be a great success here.
Me too and I like his strength of character. U need that to stand up to DS
I thought Sully had a director of football in mind?
Jr?
But it will be harder for Moyes to stand up to Sullivan if the team are losing & he will be in no position at all if we go down. A good end to the season would put Moyes in a strong position to dictate what happens in the summer. So that would imo be a win win for the many supporters who see Sullivan as the source of most of our problems. That includes me & I also think a shift in the balance of power from Sullivan to Moyes would be good for the club. I notice that in his post match comments Moyes made the point that he was happy with some of the deals done in Jan but disappointed in other respects. Maybe some implied criticism there, but Moyes is pretty canny in his public statements.