West Ham’s January loan signing of Kalvin Phillips reportedly exposed a difference in transfer strategy between manager David Moyes and director of football Tim Steidten.
According to The Athletic‘s Roshane Thomas, Moyes heavily advocated for the loan deal, which lacked a purchase option. This clashed with Steidten’s preference for permanent transfers with ownership secured.
Phillips’ time at West Ham was far from ideal. He struggled on the pitch, contributing to several conceded goals and receiving a red card. His loan ended with a return to Manchester City due to injury.
The report highlights the futility of a potential purchase option. Phillips’ poor performances suggest Steidten wouldn’t have supported such a move regardless.
The article also implied that the Phillips signing was solely driven by Moyes, potentially contributing to his eventual departure from the club.
West Ham fans were left disappointed by the loan deal, labelling it a “disaster” and potentially the club’s worst signing ever.
This situation raises questions about West Ham’s transfer strategy moving forward. Now that Moyes has gone, Will Steidten will have more influence in future deals, which will hopefully mean no more costly mistakes in the transfer market.
Always easy to lay the boot in in hindsight. Nobody could have guessed Philips wouldn’t be a decent loan signing. As it turns out he wasn’t. So we give him back and so wasn’t such a risk as buying a player on a permanent deal.
Phillips was chased by Moyes for multiple windows, but anyone watching his England performances could see that he was never in the same league as Declan. There was a good reason why Pep criticised his physical condition and refused to play him – he simply wasn’t good enough. God alone knows why they spent £45m on him.
Moyes’ fascination with him shows just what a poor judge of a player he is. A £4m loan duffer instead of buying something we really needed…..typical Moyes.
Sorry Bonzo, but there were plenty of us who didn’t want to sign Phillips. I never rated him and the fact that Moyes wanted him was testament to that. We missed out on other transfers because no decent players want to play Moyesball. Phillips didn’t care because he just wanted game time. The only winner was Guardiola. Thank goodness he can’t play tomorrow
I’m sorry but this was a disastrous mistake by moyes as Phillips wasn’t even match fit when he arrived. So west ham didn’t do due diligence before signing him on loan! West ham knew that he hadn’t played much and it seems like he hadn’t trained much either! We need to learn from this mistake and act more professionally from now on !!!
Moyes wasted millions during his time at West Ham. Haller and Scamacca were perfect examples,through no fault of their own. They they were strikers not defenders. He would have wasted millions more if he had been allowed to buy Phillips. He wasted enough just loaning him.