West Ham United are still suffering because of years of bad recruitment, Claret & Hugh has been told by a Hammers insider today. The source, who did not wish to be named, described the situation as a mess and laid the blame for the club’s current predicament firmly and squarely at muddled, poor recruitment.
Speaking to Claret & Hugh, the source said:
“It’s all down to recruitment and it’s been bad, a real mess.”
“It’s a hodge podge with players being brought from everywhere by loads of different people. We’re years behind and needed a complete reset, we had to start again and consider how we recruit.”
Honest words, and not ones that many West Ham fans would disagree with. The club has spent years changing managers, recruitment chiefs and transfer strategies, seemingly without allowing any one approach enough time to work. The result is a squad assembled under several different regimes, with little evidence of a consistent long-term plan.
West Ham’s Recruitment Needs A Complete Reset
It has always been Daniel Křetínský’s wish at West Ham to have a director of football in charge, and whilst we don’t have that exact job title at the club currently, Nils Koppen, as Director of Player Recruitment, is as good as a director of football in all but name.
What is clear is that the club are going to have to rebuild the recruitment structure brick by brick. And it’s worth pointing out that even as recently as the summer, there was still something of a mix-up, with a blend of recruitment ideas and Nuno Espírito Santo being allowed to bring in three players in Joël Piroe, Manor Solomon and Morato.
Kretinsky is a big believer in the structured recruitment model
That is hardly the definition of a joined-up recruitment strategy, although it’s also important to recognise that Koppen arrived with very little time to prepare for the summer window. The bigger issue is whether West Ham are finally prepared to commit to a consistent approach rather than changing direction whenever the manager changes.
West Ham Must Stop Starting Again
We’re semi-lucky in one respect because we do have another transfer window coming up in January, giving Koppen and Scott Parker an opportunity to address some of the more obvious problems within the squad.
But this is definitely a time when West Ham have to commit to a transfer policy and allow it to play out and bear fruit over a number of seasons. Toying with an approach and then giving up, as we did with both Tim Steidten and Kyle Macaulay, is precisely the sort of short-term thinking that has contributed to the problem.
The club cannot keep appointing recruitment specialists, allowing them to start rebuilding the squad and then abandoning the entire project when results turn sour. At some point, West Ham have to decide what sort of players they want, how they’re going to identify them and who is ultimately responsible for bringing them in.
January offers an opportunity to begin correcting some of the mistakes, but the problems described by our source won’t be fixed in a single transfer window. If West Ham are genuinely years behind in their recruitment, the rebuild needs to be given the time and consistency that previous attempts have lacked.