Forget the division separating the two sides. This isn’t about events on the pitch.
Getting the management structure wrong has been hugely costly for West Ham United in past seasons, with the awful tug of war between Sullivan, his ‘technical director’ and his ‘head coach’ ending in three different ‘leaders’ (in the loosest sense) with their hands on the transfer window steering wheel in that now infamous summer of 2024.
Thanks to poor organisation, successive managers and technical directors fell out big time, leading to virtual stalemate in the boardroom: Moyes first, then Lopetegui, banned Steidten from their training sessions and dressing rooms.
Hardly a way to run a professional football club, and all created by the haphazard appointments of David Sullivan without clear demarcation between each role.
Manchester United this year are as good an example of how not to arrange the leadership roles: ~The Daily Mail nails it with the tension between elements of the leadership spilling over:
“Manchester United’s problems are piling up with there understood to be growing tensions between director of football Jason Wilcox and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell – Daily Mail” –
Meanwhile everyone at Old Trafford points the finger at ex-Hammer Michael Carrick who is liable to be the fall guy for the chaos around him.
It reminded me West Ham’s self inflicted crisis which started a couple of years ago with first Moyes then Lopetegui refusing to speak to their own technical director.
The bad old days: In hindsight is it any wonder West Ham slid downwards after such dreadful appointments and decisions in the boardroom? Now it sounds as if Manchester United are in the same situation. He. he.
Everyone pointed the finger of blame at everyone else, first David Moyes then both Lopetegui and Steidten eventually got their p45’s and the club’s slide down toward relegation can be traced back to Sullivan’s haphazard appointments for senior posts, which were almost inevitably created for conflict rather than collaboration.
Much like the disharmony at Old Trafford appears to be creating all sorts of off-field conflict right about now.
Contrast with Kretinsky’s slick appointments this summer.
Keep Nuno running the team. Bring in a recruitment director, an acting CEO and a new CFO to work as one team, each with clearly defined roles. By comparison, the Czech billionaire’s leadership team appear to be like a well oiled machine, pulling in unison to get the club back on an even keel.
It has been a long time since the leadership at West Ham felt so slick behind the scenes: It’ll take another season and a couple more transfer windows before we can see how the Nuno-Koppen collaboration really works out, but compared with how things are at Old Trafford right now, West Ham’s boardroom and training pitches must finally seem like oases of calm.
From the outside it appears that Moyes had no say in the Steidten (whether true or not) and surely that is not the way forward and our current ownership seem to be light years away from that model. Not interested in Man Utd, but Jim Ratcliffe took Teamsky from the best team in the road cycling world to also ranks. It seems he is repeating the feat with Man Utd albeit from not such a high pedestal
It makes you wonder doesn’t it when vastly experienced and massively well compensated men, always seem to put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the club that has entrusted them to do the exact opposite. The irony of it all comes when the manager gets his biggest payday when he is dismissed for failure. Makes it hard to feel any sympathy for them.