West Ham’s appointment of Graham Potter’s favourite talent spotter, Kyle Macaulay, spells the end for Tim Steidten’s influence.
The German, once brought in to oversee transfer strategy at the London Stadium, is now effectively director of football in name only. His original remit has been severely diluted.
It is understood that Macaulay will report directly to Potter and the board with transfer target recommendations. This leaves Steidten’s role so lessened that he is likely to have very little influence moving forward.
A top Hammers source informed Claret & Hugh yesterday that compensation for Macaulay had been agreed with Chelsea. This means he will likely begin recommending players to West Ham immediately.
Steidten has come under increasing pressure following the perceived failure of all three of his summer signings: Luís Guilherme, Niclas Füllkrug, and Jean-Clair Todibo.
To give Steidten his due, he recommended signing Jhon Durán during the summer window when £40 million would have been enough to secure the striker’s services. Given yesterdays failed £57m bid for the Aston Villa striker, some might have thought the Irons DOF would have bought himself some breathing space.
However, he is now criticised for perceived wastefulness, particularly with the Füllkrug and Guilherme deals, and the Todibo transfer is under heavy scrutiny.
West Ham revealed yesterday that the £35 million commitment to sign the French defender permanently from Nice is hindering further transfers—yet another nail in the coffin for Steidten’s job prospects in East London.
Fullkrug was a signing for instant impact. Had just had two great years in Germany and internationals. Was someone Steidten thought would be a success in the premier league. The fact Fullkrug has suffered injury upon injury since signing is not Steidtens fault. Guilherme was bought as a potential big name star of the future and still could be. Guilherme is a teenager and should not be treated as a failed signing but instead a player to be nurtured for the future.
I swear to god I’ll be so annoyed if we get rid of Guilherme..
Kids had next to no opportunities, is 18, has bags of potential and at the very least will be home grown to club in 3 years, and hopefully a much better player.. no point getting rid of him now
Is the same guy who had something to do with spending something like 233million on players at Chelsea that didn’t work ,causing Beatrix to lose his job, what happens when he realizes we haven’t got that kind of money to spend, personally I think west ham have gone round in circles, and we will end up with moyesball once more, potter doesn’t enfuse me that much, the only difference is I can understand the crap coming from his mouth. And as usual Sullivan tries to build on a shoestring and when that didn’t work the blame game starts on everyone but him.
Exactly what JB15 said, plus I’d add that it’s annoying when West Ham fan pundits and youtube channels fall in behind the Sullivan line that everyone Steidten signed is a failure and so is Steidten… none of them, including the scarf man have been given a fair chance yet. Worth saying that neither Fulkrug or Todibo got a proper pre-season, as lots of top players don’t these days. Sullivan wanted Lopetegui, Sullivan didn’t want Steidten, Sullivan ballsed up the Duran deal… that’s the common denominator in all our problems.
One last thing on Fulkrug, it would be good if the media (and fan outlets and ITKs) would stop peddling the line that he cost £27m, he didn’t he cost €27m – there’s quite a signifcant difference, and he hasn’t cost us anything like all of that yet. He’s clearly a very good player who would by all accounts fit Potter’s preferred style of play. Given that pace was never part of his game, he’s all about hold up play there’s no reason (beyond injury) that he couldn’t successfully see out his contract – at which point he’d be the same age as Antonio is now… and we’re apparently talking about giving Antonio a 12 month contract extension when he comes back from his car crash injuries – which is possibly as much as a year away.
Have heard reports coming from the training ground that guilherme is not good enough for first team football which I don’t disbelieve cause 2 managers don’t seem to want to play the kid
So that being said steiden has wasted 50 mil on him and fullkrug and needs getting shot of
So on your theory, one ‘unproven’ signing means he should lose his job, and we go back to Sullivan getting involved in transfers?
Imagine if Man Utd got rid of Ferguson for wanting Kleberson, Djemba Djemba, Veron etc.
Imagine if Brighton sacked Hurzeler tomorrow for spending £20m on Kadioglu, who has barely played this season.
Villa might sack Emery if Donyell Malen doesn’t play much this season, after spending £22m on him.
This short term attitude of fans and the club will always hold us back. We’re never going to get every signing right, but who in their right mind would want to be in charge of transfers at our club after we push Steidten out.
Can’t sign any development players – can’t sign older players – can’t sign players who’ve had injuries…
THE SOONER HE IS GONE THE BETTER FOR EVERYONE
THEY CANT ALL BE WRONG ABOUT HIM EVEN AT PREVIOUS CLUBS IN GERMANY THEY WERE GLAD TO SEE THE BACK OF HIM
HE WASTED FAR TO MUCH MONEY WHEN GIVEN THE REIGNS ON OLD WORN OUT FOOTBALLERS AND YOUNG WANNABEES
THE YOUNGSTER MIGHT COME GOOD BUT WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO WAIT ON A MAYBE
What are you talking about? He did an incredible job at Bayer Leverkusen and signed most of the players that went on to have an unbeaten season, winning the Bundesliga e.g. Florian Wirtz, Palacios, Diaby, Frimpong, Schick, Kossounou just to name a few…! He also hired Xabi Alonso who is one of the most highly rated coaches in Europe.
At Werder Bremen he signed De Bruyne from Chelsea, Serge Gnabry etc.
The guy has proven to be excellent at signing players at well run clubs. We have a poisoned dwarf chairman meddling at every opportunity not allowing Steidten to do his job.
And stop the CAPS, please!
It was Lopetegui that refused to give him game time, not Steidten, so perhaps you should have been more vocal towards JL rather than sounding like a broken record on Steidten.
I’ve been massively vocal about Lopetegui, who is another Sullivan appointed failure. So not sure I understand your point…
Apologies for not being clear, my comment was in response to Ms. Markham who does nothing but bash Steidten and doesn’t seem to know why.
Can somebody list Macaulay’s successes? Does he have any? He will not have a 46 man squad to hide behind at West Ham.
I don’t see how you make Guilherme a Steidten failure when he has hardly had any game time. Is he that bad in training? If he is, why does he keep making the bench?
German international Brazilian under 23 int rated best young player in Brazil bad choice by Stiedten dont think so W ham just cant handle class players
Personally, I think it’s incredibly harsh on Steidten.
No other Technical Director in his job has had to put up with the ridiculous system of manager makes a signing (JWP wanted by Moyes, Phillips wanted by Moyes, Kilman wanted by J-Lo), Salthouse recommends a few signings then whatever’s left, Steidten can then make a signing. There is zero joined up thinking at the club.
Steidten wanted Duran and Gyokeres – if we hadn’t wasted money on the likes of the above, then we would have had our striker situation sorted.
Steidten wanted Amorim. Again, Sullivan wouldn’t pay so we got J-Lo.
The guy literally can’t do his job.
Spending money on Guilherme was theoretically the right thing to do. Every big club now signs players for the future for big money, in the hope that they become even better players or that they sell them for big profits.
Fullkrug was (and still is) Germany’s number 9 – he could have had the season Chris Wood is having had it not been for injuries. £22m amortised over 4 years isn’t a big financial risk for a player of his experience.
You look at clubs like Brighton and you don’t get Tony Bloom tell his Director of Football, i’ll sign a player first, then Hurzeler can choose one, then you. All signings are left to experienced data analytics teams and scouts, under the same thinking as the director of football.
Sullivan is the core problem at the club.
A joined up comment for a change. Nice one JB15, haven’t seen you for a long time
It’s hard to know what’s true anymore but was it clear £40m was enough in the Summer for Duran? Villa never showed any signs of wanting to sell. It was pretty clearly a big risk for a unproven player and it seemed the right thing to move on while Villa kept hiking any suggested fee.
For that money we still should of been able to get a good young competitive forward surely?
Fullkrug seems a decent player but again a risk because of age and injury record. A risky choice followed by bad luck.
The £25m on Guilherme who isn’t good enough to be a sub with all attackers injured is worse judgement.
Doesn’t Steiden and WHam have the statistics people to highlight opportunities and downsides with players? Clearly the whole system from data analysis to the decision-making isn’t up to standard. Is that Steidens fault? Maybe but it doesn’t stop with him.
We keep referring to these players as failures. They haven’t failed at anything. Our board are so inept, we are looking like such a debacle in footballing circles. Even Talksport are getting a real kick out of us. The failures are them. I’m sure Stiedten would be seen as a messiah if he got Duran and was backed, but for the sake of a compensation payment for a poor manager we went without.
The office footballing banter is getting worse with Sullivans antics.
While we procrastinate on who to sign and what derisory offer to make, other clubs will step in.
Now Sullivan it seems is taking back the recruitment, all the previous years of poor dealings are happening again. We even upset the Saudi pirchase for Guilherme because we wanted more. Coincidence?
This mess is down to one man. David Sullivan. Todibo is a good player with no injury history to worry about but typically has arrived at West Ham and got injured.
Fullkrug would not be here if Sullivan had listened to the recommendation to pay the extra for Duran.
The only one on Steidten imo is Guilherme.
Other questionable transfers of Kilman, Rodruiguez and Soler were down to Lopetegui and who appointed him against recommendations …. Yep Sullivan.
Tobido and Guilherme are not failures. Untested, so the jury is still out.
Brentford is not the model to follow, though they are doing far better than the Hammers, but why have an academy if we don’t want the products? Regardless, the listless, geriatric first team needs to go.
At least Potter has given opportunities to Scarles and Orford.
We will never fulfil our potential while Sullivan calls the shots and calls them so abysmally.
We should never have been in a position where so many players required recruiting last window, nine is ridiculous, that guarantees that we won’t get good value as other clubs know that we’re desperate and up prices accordingly. We’ll be taken in the same way this window.
We should never have been in a position where Duran was turned down for want of a bit more, Fullkrug should never have arisen. That decision was appalling but not as bad as…
We should never have been in a position where Lopetegui was in charge causing all round chaos ensuring that signings were made least of.
It is impossible for anyone to work effectively in such a background and it’s never going to be any different while Sullivan calls the shots as he owns the goofs.
Was he ever technical director in more than name only with Sullivans meddling? It should also be noted that he didn’t want lop. This is the mess that happens when there are too many (bad) cooks in kitchen .