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West Ham power battle…only one winner

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West Ham power battle

Behind the scenes, there is a West Ham power battle of which there will be only one winner when push comes to shove. It is of course between manager  David Moyes  and the new technical director, Tim Steidten The winner will take it all.

West Ham power battle …only one winner

Steidten has been publicly and privately credited for the signings of Kudus, Alvarez and Mavropanos and the board is delighted with his start to his new role. But ahead of that there was serious tension and it has been alleged that the German almost walked out such was the inflexibility he faces when suggesting new signings.

West Ham power battle

He stayed and has quickly installed himself as the number two to David Sullivan in all footballing matters, leaving Mark Noble slightly in the shade to deal with Academy matters. It will be Steidten who will draw up the short list of the next manager, whenever that might be, and the relationship between the manager and the technical director will be a crucial one, whoever is the head coach.

Moyes will need to work closely with Steidten come December in advance of the January transfer window and if he chooses not to we could find ourselves in a showdown come Christmas time over transfer strategy. If it comes to that, over the festive period, there will be only one winner, and it will not be David Moyes  so the big question remains whether the current manager can be open-minded to other ideas and share power.

West Ham power battle By Sean Whetstone

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

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