Teflon Tim Steidten was back in his element yesterday, acting as lord of the manor, tour guide, and concierge for new West Ham boss Graham Potter on his first day at the club.
The Hammers’ director of football has displayed incredible resilience, seemingly rebounding from the brink of an exit just two weeks ago.
At that time, Steidten found himself embroiled in a power struggle with Julen Lopetegui, while also facing scrutiny from the club over questionable transfer decisions during the summer window. Consequently, the German saw his authority on transfers significantly reduced, appearing to signal an imminent departure from the London Stadium.
However, Steidten was front and centre during the selection process for Lopetegui’s replacement, playing a pivotal role in interviewing the three candidates West Ham considered.
Yesterday marked a triumphant return for the former Bayer Leverkusen man as he featured prominently in West Ham’s mini-film documenting Graham Potter’s first day at Rush Green.
The footage captured Potter warmly greeting Steidten with a cheery “alright, mate,” a firm handshake, and a friendly shoulder slap. The Hammers’ director of football then gave the new manager a tour of the facilities, marking a stark contrast to his double bans from the training ground under both David Moyes and Julen Lopetegui.
Steidten introduces Potter to Dinos
Training Ground Déjà vu
The scenes felt familiar, echoing the glossy optimism of Lopetegui’s arrival video in the summer when West Ham were hailed by mainstream media as having “won the transfer window.”
Potter himself has been impressive, exuding a clear vision for the club and creating a palpable sense of optimism ahead of tonight’s FA Cup clash. Generating such positivity within 24 hours of his arrival is no small feat.
A top West Ham United source told Claret and Hugh, “I hope Potter is here for the next 5-10 years,” a sentiment I wholeheartedly share.
However, if I were the new West Ham manager, I’d be sleeping with one eye open, given the chequered history of the Hammers’ director of football.
Let’s concentrate on the team, great performance tonite, definitely our best this, season and we were only undone by a villa fan the referee who gave them the corner that never was, otherwise they never really looked like getting back in the game until the crooked ref intervened. But have to give a big shout out for mollie scares who was named motm and rightly so and also paqueta who played his best game of the season. What Potter has done in 24hours loopylou couldn’t get anywhere near that level in 6 months. Now get a, few more of our talented youngsters involved.
“But have to give a big shout out for mollie scares”. MOLLIE SCARES? He obviously scared the living daylights out of the Villans because he was all over their forwards.
Peter mentioned the positive impact of Dawson & Collins on the team which I reckon everyone would agree with.
Its a shame that Moyes couldn´t persuade Ballon Dór to stay but weird that no one has tried to lure Collins in to a back room role since he still lives locally.
Locally? He lives in Bishops Stortford.
So Gonzo is not a Steidten fan today, but who knows which direction the wind will blow tomorrow. Gonzo generates a lot of the negative narrative, but as I said yesterday, does anyone have a copy of Steidtens job spec? How can you criticize his performance when you don’t even know what his role is? Even his title changes like the weather.
Lots of criticism in the comments. Tim Steiden’s job at West Ham is to identify potential recruits for the club and, when given the nod, to deal with the engagement of those recruits.
He never has been a substitute owner. He was never employed to take all decisions on staffing. David Sullivan, together with the help of Karren Brady, has done a brilliant job as owners and custodians of the West Ham name. They never have and never will trust any employee to have any control over their investment.
We face the future in good hands. Maybe not as successful as most of us would hope but with well-meaning people at the top.
Bracing myself for the usual hate comments – crash helmet going on.
COYI
cut it out Gonzo. so transparent. 👎
post-article rating 2/10
may get another point when the dust on this one sttles tomorrow
Seriously, the anti Steidten campaign from you and Whetstone on behalf of Sullivan is astounding. The window wasn’t as bad as you lot claim and with a new manager you may find that some of the strugglers perform better.
The title and everything about this post is just plain WRONG!
And what happened to allowing time for players to adapt to the EPL? (Henry and Berkamp spring to mind).
Problem with Steidten is he wants to be in the limelight and work separate to the manager. He wants to take all the credit. I don’t know if he reads or listens to the media but maybe all the super Steidten story’s went to his head. Before Steidten we had Rob Newman who had a close working relationship with Moyes and was happy to stay behind the scenes and let the manager take the credit.
The problem is we also have Sullivan who wants to take all the credit.
The bigger question is will Sullivan back off and let Tim do his thing without constant interferance and undermining? That would be a huge step in the right direction.
Sullivan hasn’t changed or wised up!
The way he publicly handled Moyes departing, appointed a woeful replacement and then again publicly made an awful scenario worse would suggest he will keep on repeating his mistakes.
Steidten does what the board requires him to do. I believe Mark Noble was instrumental in the ousting of Lopetegui. Noble wouldn’t have been happy from the start after Lopetegui sent Earthy out on loan. Noble thought Earthy was ready for the first team. Noble also unhappy according to rumours with the way Lopetegui communicated with his players via an interpreter. When Lopeteguis Spanish mate recently talked about someone inside the camp pouring petrol on the fire, I believe that was noble not Steidten. Just my take on it.
I have seen articles in recent days saying that players went to Noble with concerns, so yes I agree with your take.
I’ve just seen a valuation for Duran at 85 million Euros is £71 million. What a wonderful decision it was not to pay the bit extra.
Exactly the same is true for the other striker that Steidten recommended that we buy… Gyokeres. He was 20 million Euros when bought from Coventry, your guess is as good as mine as to what he’s worth now.
Dreadful, dreadful decisions make nigh on all of our problems.
It’s a case of hope and trust now John.
We hope Sullivan will trust Tim to make signings like Kudus which will generate big profits. Either of those strikers would’ve seen better results on the pitch. They would also help with PSR with sell on clauses.
Potter is accustomed to working with data led recruitment teams (Brighton and Chelsea). He is not used to working with owners that use agents to buy players that are not suited and unbalance the squad.
Will our Director of Football be trusted or will Sullivan use his preferred agents?
The constant negative stories online about Tim would suggest Sullivan wants control and it will be the same old routine.
Sullivans very existence is about wanting control. The club is like a real life playstation to him, it always has been and it always will be. That’s not necessarily an issue in itself but it is in particular as just how much has it cost not to bring in Duran and to appoint Lopetegui ?
Duran looks to be worth about £25M more already, then there’s any loss on Fullkrug who would not have been necessary, then there’s £3M per finishing position where Lopetegui was awful, then there’s the payoff for Lopetegui. Those poor decisions cost an absolute fortune.
Steidten would have brought in Duran for a few million more paid off manyfold by his increase in value already. Steidten would not have brought in Lopetegui.
Yep, mix in Steidten’s Gyokeres in with Noble Academy recommendations + Potter choices and you could really have something.
Neither did any of the other 19 premier league clubs try to buy Duran. Or the hundreds of other clubs in Europe.
You’ve only made the point stronger by highlighting that nobody else tried to buy Duran but we did. It was us who wouldn’t pay a little extra for a player who is now worth many millions more. We could have had a player on our hands who has scored once every 100 minutes since. We could have but we haven’t because it was us who wouldn’t pay a bit more. Our goof not anyone elses.
Exactly “pearl diver” is identifying players before their breakout season and buying them before every club becomes interested.
If we had trusted Steidten and signed Duran then Villa and West Ham could’ve both made healthy profits in the process.
We saw that our German spy Steidten has been courting Potter since the Leicester game at least. He was involved in the recruitment process and he is involved in everything on the football side and transfers going forward. Looks like he’s very much a part of our club for the foreseeable future.
Echo the sentiment that Potter will be around for the next 5 – 10 years. Just hope i am too!!!
Imn sure POTTER and STIEDTEN will make a great team now we have 2 people who are competent with the same vision
I too hope Potter will be around 5-10 years. I do not know what success he will bring, I do not know if it is all bubbles in the air but if we keep on building, if we bring in a little quality and youth, this setup (Potter + Steidten + Nobes) could work and maybe we can bring the big top down. When mention re. Steidten, one criticism, could be the character of the players he brings in. DM was not ideal at recruitment, but you could tell he paid a lot of attention to the player’s character/mentality (Dawson, Coufal) and how he would fit in. I don’t think Steidten has this (but I am guessing of course), but Nobes and Potter would bring that.
Just to add, that a player like Dawson or say Collins from the past, I am not sure how well they show up on a spreadsheet, but put them on a pitch and they bring something incredible to a team – they end up being bloody brilliant!. You need them as much as the others.
Sullivan decided to replace Moyes and not renew his contract but let it play out in public.
Sullivan made an epic failure with his appointment to replace Moyes. Sullivan again showed a lack of class rectifying his mistake with his treatment of JLo.
Potter needs to sleep with both eyes open when it comes to Sullivan.
Steidten and Potter will probably be more aligned than Sullivan when it comes to potential transfers.
If Steidten and Potter are allowed to fulfil their jobs without outside influences like Sullivan/Will Salthouse then we might have a chance to progress.
The trouble we have is that Sullivan is like a kid with a playstation while Kretinsky has invested thrupence three farthings with comparison to his other investments so takes nigh on no personal interest at all. With both things being too far extremes.
The only thing that has changed is the man in the dugout.
Potter has mentioned “trust and alignment” in his media interview. If Potter and Steidten are allowed to align on transfers it could work.
Our board wanting to be kept informed of Rashford’s situation seems to suggest Sullivan is still playing Football Manager like you have alluded to John.
I have no issues with Steidten. It’s not surprising at all that there were tensions with two outgoing managers that he’d been tasked with finding replacements for. That’s hardly likely to make him a popular character with them. While to be bluntly to the point Steidten has far better opportunities elsewhere than either of them do.
I do not see his acquisitions as being problematical either. The two most of his critics take aim at are Guilherme and Fullkrug. Well with Guilherme I really do not know what people were reading as there was no impression given that he would immediately take a first team place, it was very clear that he would get cameo appearances which he has, he’s 18.
As for Fullkrug well really… Duran was Steidtens choice but somebody was too tight to pay a bit extra for him. What a brilliant decision that was with him being worth £20M more just a few months later. If a sensible and as it turns out profitable decision had been taken to pay the bit extra for Duran then there’d have been no reason for Fullkrug who in a competent background would not have arisen.
Mindblowingly the don’t pay a bit more for Duran decision was not even the worst decision at that time, incredibly someone thought that Lopetegui was the best choice to be manager. To be frank with such terrible appalling decisions being made that to work within what chance has anybody got. The Duran and Lopetegui decisions were so dreadful and enormously costly we’re talking millions gone west that by rights they should be sackable offences.
Well said John
John, I hardly expect David Sullivan to sack himself! Also, while I share some of your frustration with the club’s dealings, we all know that it’s easy to be wise after the event. At the time of our pursuing Jhon Duran there were quite a few comments expressing concern that we might be spending far too much money on a player who had bad attitude and was a distraction within thge Aston Villa dressing room. He was relatively still unproven back then too. I guess you win some and lose some. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Well said hammeroo but it was a lot more than a few who thought it was too much of a risk. Villa have never said they would have accepted 40million it’s just presumption
I admit that I doubted the value in signing Duran in the summer for £50m as he was still unproven. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Foresight which is what Tim obviously had when he made Duran his priority striker target.
Hindsight is free….
Foresight is worth tens of millions!
Imagine trying to do Steidten’s job. Not easy, from all accounts. ‘Lord of the Manor’ is not what I saw and not, I believe, fair. The guy’s approach is pretty laid back and I believe time will show he’s done on the whole pretty well for us. Give him a chance under less strange circumstances. Remember you weren’t happy with the way DM and Lopo were doing things, and nor was he. It’s a new start and it’s about time Claret and Hugh, Hammers News etc got off Tim Steidten’s back. We’re fortunate he hasn’t just left.
Spot on. Won’t be long before C and H get on Potter’s back. Don’t recall this site slagging off Tim S at the end of the transfer window in the Summer. Them, like the rest of us (and the media) felt we had a fabulous window and whose to say that Potter won’t get far more out of these players. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I love all these after the event merchants. If I knew all the click bait this site serves up in advance, would I even bother clicking on a story? As per usual, let’s ignore the positivity of Potter and focus on some so called negatives instead. If he wasn’t involved I am sure this ****e sorry site would have slagged him off for not being there.
Why does Steidten have a chequered history? He has been told to find replacement managers twice (which is his job) and depending on your outlook the existing managers have acted understandably / or petulantly and flexed their muscles within their power by saying that the training ground is their area and not wanting him there.
Let’s be honest, J-Lo was not a Steidten pick and not sure Potter was top of his list. Yes, jury still out on Fullkrug and Guilherme but neither has played much and all other Steidten signings have been great.