By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
According to ExWHUEmployee Patreon, new Hammers head of recruitment Nils Koppen and head coach Nuno Espírito Santo have now met in person to decide upon the type of transfer targets the club will look to bring in.
Koppen has arrived from FC Copenhagen to oversee West Ham’s recruitment restructuring programme, and it remains unclear whether he had already recommended players before officially joining the club.
A Fresh Start For Recruitment
Whether this means we can pretty much dismiss every player linked with a move to the London Stadium before this week’s meeting, I’m not sure.
But it is going to be fascinating to see how this new dynamic develops.
In an ideal world, Nuno Espírito Santo will provide Koppen with the type of players required to make his preferred system function, and the recruitment process will begin from there.
The Elephant In The Room
The elephant in the room, of course, is Nuno’s preference for working with his agent, Jorge Mendes, when identifying players.
There is also the small matter of his departure from Nottingham Forest following a disagreement with Evangelos Marinakis over the appointment of Edu, who had been placed in charge of recruitment.
That said, I fully expect Daniel Křetínský would have sounded out Nuno before appointing somebody who was going to be tasked with shaping the future of the West Ham squad.
A Huge Opportunity
This is going to be one of the most important roles at the football club going forward, both for West Ham and for the two men involved.
If the partnership works as it should, we could be about to enter a bold new era of recruitment, with a clear strategy replacing the scattergun approach that has too often characterised previous windows.
For me, that may prove to be one of the most important changes of all under the new ownership.
Nuno’s Mendes connection is a worry for me. Whether Kloppen will be backed remains to be seen..
I hope we are not going to have the usual scenario of previous seasons, of exciting the fans of players agreeing terms and flying in for a medical as we have just had.
If we go for players we want to keep it quiet, because every time a player is scouted and we blabber, it alerts other teams who are in a much better position than we are, so straight away we do not stand a chance of signing, so let’s be realistic and not try and get players who we don’t stand a hope in hell of getting.
Would like to see some signings, 85million in the bank and was told we did not need to sell, so let’s get some players in for the loyal 42,000 plus fans which have renewed their season tickets,after being told things are going to be so different.
Please do not let the fans down, we deserve better
Slightly straying off article but still on recruitment whu doesn’t have a set piece coach.
Looking at Arsenal and what a big part this played in them winning the league maybe whu should take this onboard.
Amount of goals conceded from set pieces was horrendous.
We also have a psychologist which came from Brighton who never gets a mention, James Bell.
Maybe he could go one to one with Todibo and sort things out with Nuno.
I seem to remember an earlier post saying that Nuno would be part of the team researching and appointing the new DOF, so hopefully he can have no major initial issues with the man