With Tim Steidten recently defending his decision to sign Niclas Fullkrug in an interview with DeichStube, debate among West Ham supporters over his recruitment record has resurfaced. Many of the players he brought in have already moved on, and opinions remain divided on the overall success of his tenure as Technical Director.
Edson Alvarez – bought for £35.4m the Mexican skipper was player of the tournament in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup yet is now on loan at Fenerbahce who have an option to buy at £18m, though a season threatening injury could mean an early return to London.
Luis Guilherme, recently departed to Sporting CP for around €20 million, Guilherme has made a promising start at his new club but his West Ham spell was far less successful. He struggled to impress three managers and rarely featured.
Many reports suggest the Hammers overpaid for the player, who was identified after Steidten’s pursuit of former Corinthians winger Wesley Gassova collapsed during a South American scouting trip.
Jean Clair-Todibo joined as the Hammers outbid Juventus, on an initial loan with an obligation to buy. The former Barcelona centre back has been inconsistent yet shown flashes of brilliance, and under Nuno Espírito Santo has played his best football.
Guido Rodriguez on paper looked a shrewd signing. He was part of the Argentinian World Cup winning squad and available on a free transfer. Having been linked to Barcelona the signing was seen as a-bit of a coup for West Ham, yet the veteran midfielder failed to adjust to the pace of the Premier League and having entered the last six months of his contract reported at a whopping £90k a week, has now joined Valencia for a nominal fee.
Max Kilman and Carlos Soler were Julen Lopetegui signings, while Crysencio Summerville was a classic “Sully Special,”
Aaron Wan Bissaka – Steidten personally finalised the deal for the versatile full-back, according to multiple reports. At the time Steidten said “I am delighted we’ve been able to get the deal to sign Aaron over the line. He’s exactly the type of player we’re looking to attract to this Club in the prime years of his career.”
Konstantinos Mavropanos – Steidten actively drove the deal. Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg reported that West Ham reached “total agreement” for Mavropanos after Tim Steidten pushed for the move. The player was photographed on the “infamous” private jet with Steidten and his agent as the transfer neared completion.
Mohamadou Kante – Steidten knew about him through his data‑heavy scouting system and his strong network in French youth football, identifying Kante as a low‑risk, high‑reward midfielder before bigger clubs noticed. He may still turn into Tim Steidten’s one true ‘pearl’ which would be ironic as he was the cheapest of all the German’s signings. There might yet be a ‘happy ending’ to the Steidten story if Kanté makes it big.
He introduced a more modern scouting framework, appointing Max Hahn, emphasising data‑driven profiling and systematic recruitment, even if the club never fully embraced it. In many ways, Steidten pushed West Ham toward a more contemporary model, even as internal tensions limited how far that transformation could go.
His legacy, like his recruitment record, remains open to interpretation. But one thing is certain his tenure left a mark on the club’s direction, for better or worse.
Steidten must be held fully responsible for all signings from Summer 2024 until he was sacked. You might say a manager wanted a player or that a player was a “Sully special”, but Steidten had final say on transfers as DOF. That was the reason Moyes couldn’t sign a new contract, to look at the success percentage of Steidten signings he probably dodged a bullet by leaving for Everton.
Well regardless of what we might think about the ratings of individual players they have all contributed to poor league form and likely to be relegated this season. Result is a failure.
AWB was a great bit of business. Todibo is pretty decent but we overpaid for him. Kante might be good in future but who knows.
The fact that we’ve lost or will lose money on everyone else doesnt look good for ol timmy the pearl diver.
J Lo’s purchases were awful.
Ironically Summerville the sully special may turn out to be the player we could sell for most profit.
I agree Matt. What does frustrate me is that fans and pundits do have a tendancy to quickly write-off directors, managers and players as competely useless when often the truth is much more nuanced. It does nothing for the confidence of the team in a ultra competitive league. Worth noting that many of the players (and manager) behind our recent resurgence were previously labelled as inadequate on this site and elsewhere. Sometimes it just takes a bit of time and the right coaching to turn talent into results.
I really don’t think Steiden was the problem, he was good at what he did just working with Sullivan and poor managers made it really difficult.
If we had taken the positives and built on it with a professional structure to common objectives it may be different now.
But Sullivan threw it all away to go back to the scattergun any which way approach we had before.