Commenting on the current crisis at Manchester United and drawing parallels with West Ham’s own sorry experiences (which she omits to mention that she helped put in place), former West Ham vice Chair Karren Brady, writing in her column in the Sun.co.uk, takes aim at the appointment of both head coaches and sporting (or “technical”) directors in a system where the two work against each other – and the subsequent turmoil which almost inevitably ensues.
Recounting West Ham’s history, Brady adopts a tone suggesting the club’s troubled leadership structure, often with three different supremos all acting as if they were in charge, merely ‘happened’ to come about, rather than being as a direct result of hers and her boss David Sullivan’s muddled appointments.
In her gloriously sub-titled article, without even the slightest hint of irony, she writes:
“Football has invented a wonderful job for people who want all the power without the pressure:
“A sporting director cannot demand authority over recruitment and then disclaim responsibility when it fails.
At West Ham, Tim Steidten arrived in 2023 to modernise recruitment but clashed with David Moyes, who had delivered three successive top-ten finishes and a European trophy.
West Ham’s ill fated appointment of technical director Tim Steidten – alongside two dodgy managers – cost the club financially and the effects are still being felt on the pitch.
Moyes quite rightly wanted a say in signings; Steidten favoured a director-led approach. By May 2024, relations had collapsed so badly that Steidten was told to stay away from first-team areas.
Moyes left that summer. Julen Lopetegui arrived, the club spent heavily and the dysfunction resurfaced. Lopetegui was sacked in January 2025; Steidten followed him out.”
Makes you wonder what she was paid over million quid a year to sort out, really, blaming Steidten and successive managers for putting the West Ham ship on the rocks seems an enormous abdication of responsibility: Not the fault of West Ham’s board at all, was it, the creation of a system which put senior figures at loggerheads with each other.
In her own words, “all the power without the pressure”. Ahem.
What she might have added was that her successor in West Ham’s boardroom appears to have fixed it with one appointment. A Director of Recruitment who works alongside the manger.
No ‘technical director’ pulling on different levers from the manger. No ‘sporting director’ blowing the budget (with the board signing off every deal, don’t forget): Everyone aligned and working to the same goal.
It seems to be working just fine at West Ham having been put in place by a certain Czech Sphinx within weeks of Brady’s exit. Funny that, no mention of that in her column.
how many relegations and managers under her watch.
just shows completely delusional.
I always wonder how she got her opportunity under Sullivan.
Your last six words say it all Dave
I’ve always said that this vile woman is unintelligent on top of being arrogant, delusional, egotistical, and narcissistic.
How someone as incompetent, clueless, and utterly unlikeable as her has managed to acquire the success that she has is staggering.
Look around, the world is absolutely full of them.
It’s that lack of awareness bred from the mentorship of Sullivan that sums up the mismanagement of our beloved club. Most would go away in hiding through embarrassment, but to appear on a tv show based on being an entrepreneur and then write your own column on the very thing you contributed to, is the exact narcissistic behaviour that ruined our club.
Like I always say, if she was a contestant on The Apprentice, she would get slung out week 1. She’d be better as a Traitor and would go undetected all the way to the end on that show, especially with the lies and BS that just rolls off the tongue.