By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham have lost out to Wrexham in their pursuit of Director of Football Steve Nickson.
The 62-year-old has left Newcastle and, as of a week ago, the Hammers were confident that talks between the two parties had gone well.
Unfortunately, following the intervention of the Welsh club, it would appear Nickson has chosen to join Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Wrexham project for reasons which are not yet entirely clear.
Money Wasn’t The Issue
Certainly, West Ham would have provided a competitive financial package which would almost certainly have exceeded what Nickson was earning at Newcastle.
Therefore, it can only be assumed that footballing reasons and the overall project proved decisive.
That, in itself, perhaps tells its own story.
A Blow To West Ham’s Rebuild
The move will be a huge blow to the West Ham hierarchy, who remain stuck at present and are still lacking the football infrastructure needed to properly begin rebuilding for a season in the Championship.
Having pledged to restructure the club around a Director of Football-led recruitment model, the Hammers must now turn their attention to alternative candidates.
The search goes on.
A Dent To Confidence
Make no mistake about it, losing out to Wrexham—no matter how ambitious they might be—is a real dent to confidence.
West Ham remain a far bigger football club.
But right now, we are paying the price for a lack of structure and uncertainty behind the scenes.
The sooner those issues are addressed, the sooner the rebuild can properly begin.
Thank goodness we have dodged this particular bullet. Wrexham will suit the guy and his later life ambitions admirably.
We need to aim higher and it looks as if we are. Happy days.
Wasn’t the caveat that Nickson wanted Staveley & Ghodussi installed as co majority shareholders before taking up post?
Perhaps as this hasn’t happened in a timely manner, he’s opted for the other offer on the table.
BTW, there’s a lot of Championship clubs that are equally ambitious and forward thinking.
We’re beginning from a standing start to get going.
It’s going to be bleak before we actually get up to speed, we are in a slump with lots to reset before we gain traction let alone any momentum.
If restructuring your whole clubs transfer and football business is going to be put at the feet of one person I’d have had large reservations of it being somebody over 60.
To restructure Wrexham is a far simpler task than at West Ham. Look at all the current clubs punching way above their weight. Far easier to do without the weight of expectation and politics of the huge clubs. If we’re going to do this it needs someone who’s going to be able to remain fresh for 10 years and therefore no older than around 50 years old. Nickson who incidentally I had never ever heard of is 61 and at the wrong end of the age group for this task. Nevermind a dent in confidence but more a dodged bullet of somebody deciding to retire before the job has taken full restructure.
No change in shares, no financial investment, no director of football, lots of fluff stories being leaked…
How sure are we that Sullivan has actually relinquished control? Because everything feels like its out of his playbook.
Give it a couple of days and there’ll be a story about how Mavropanos has told us he’s off and he won’t play for us again – hence why he goes to Germany.
Lots of hot air yet nothing has actually changed except a couple of statements. Brady promised us that we’d sign a DoF so where’s that list? Don’t we have a big chunk of money due at the end of the month or the lights go out?
Or maybe thats the headline of this weekend, “Sullivan swoops in to rescue club as the debtman is at the door”
Maybe they’ll wait until the ST window is closed, then DK will release a statement blaming anyone and everyone for not being able to invest and that, sadly, all those promised retainees will have to be sold.
How far have we fallen. This is majorly embarrassing 😳. Looks like we are going to be a joke under this regime. For once in my life can we have decent owners.
I don’t think it’s a dent to confidence, or shouldn’t be.
Maybe Nickson felt he’d have more control to build from the ground up at Wrexham, whereas we’ve already got a premier league squad, many of whom the club apparently wants to keep. Not much leeway there in the immediate term for a DOF?
We could kick off the season without Fernandes, Summerville and a couple more, and still have the strongest squad in the league.
Gonzo can one of your “senior sources” answer the list of questions that Ted has put forward above.
No shares deal done
Dof rejects offer
Jemez rejects offer
No players bought
Seems like Kretin is desperately trying to ramp up ST sales
Gonzo
What is going on ? We have 7 weeks to the start of a new season and nothing appears to be happening.
Director of football chosen turned us down
Assistant manger has not accepted our offer
Hardly any movement of players in or out
No change to shareholding actually completed.
We heard a lot of talk allegedly from Kretinsky about new training facility , remodelling the ground.
No additional funds actually invested
Season ticket renewals are nearly 40000. I am starting to feel we are all being mugged. Would appreciate your thoughts
Who’s to say we missed out it might be they decided there’s someone better out there time will tell.
I don’t see this as a dent to confidence at all. The guy clearly fancied the chance to put his face all over Disney+. We can’t offer him that so no worries, we move on. Who can honestly say we’d ever heard of the guy before we went in for him. Doesn’t bother me one bit, think you need to relax Gonzo, you’re right to point out we need someone in that position, but it’s not the end of the world that it won’t be Steve Nickson.