As reported earlier, West Ham have now receive, it appears, a second offer for unsettled defender Nayef Aguerd who has been on a season-long loan at Spain’s Real Sociedad. It seems surprising that a deal to sell wasn’t packaged up during last season: Aguerd was known to be reluctant to ever set foot at London Stadium again.
It highlights the backward step taken by the club after the failings of the trio of Steidten, Sullivan and Lopetegui to pull together a squad with depth last summer. Because the personnel were wrong it doesn’t not mean the model was faulty but the Hammers in 2025 have decided to press on without a Director of Football purely responsible for their deal-making.
Contrast this to just about every other Premier League club: A report produced twelve months ago by givemesport.com showed almost every Premier League side had a ‘Sporting Director/Director of Football’ figure to handle the deal making and the negotiations.
Whilst many of those personnel haven’t lasted a year, most clubs still separate the DOF role from the ‘Head Coach’ as the old fashioned ‘Manager’ is simply too big a role for one person, as Graham Potter is no doubt discovering. More than likely a Dan Ashworth – type figure would have sales ready to go by now. We’ll never know.
However, look at the signs: The Roma Director of Football who initiated the Aguerd offer, Florent Ghisolfi, is heading away from Italy and about to take up a new role- in the Premier League as Sunderland Director of Football.
As other Premier League clubs follow the tried and tested’ new ways’ , it seems the Hammers are stuck in the 1970’s with the chairman or vice chair aiming to ‘do the deals’. Is Tim Steidten watching on from somewhere warm and sunny, toes in the sand, chuckling at the Hammers’ misfortunes? Quite possibly.
West Ham fans will think they know exactly how this ends.
Sullivan and Gold only wanted West Ham for the land grab football they were not interested in and with Gold gone the family not bothered just want to offload there shares to the highest bidder and if one not found will just hold on to them until an offer they want comes along…soon as we get relegated Sullivan will sell up and move onto Cardiff.
I do not get bothered by the ifs and buts regarding transfers as we all know the truth and have been here to many times….nope i do not part with any cash since we were moved i just watch us on the dodgy streams now and that’s it for me until we get back into a proper football stadium i will not go to a home game.
Its going take west ham to be relegated before anything changes.
I hate sullivan and co for the joke they have made us.
Keep hiding behind a trophy that in all honesty didnt take much winning.
Bad management, the club is rotton to the core.
Sullivan thinks he knows better. Any DoF would struggle working with/for him. Over inflated ego.
The present structure is not fit for purpose.
I think I counted 10 EPL teams had undertaken transfer business in the mini window, including sales only clubs. This is streets ahead of us and we are still not ‘on the verge’ of our first sale a week into the full window.
This is not a reason to panic yet but is a sign of lack of planning, structure and just being bl**dy sensible.
If we haven’t got any new players in by the end of the first week of July we are already struggling to get players to settle in and as each day goes it gets harder.
This inturn will make it harder to get off to a good start and the pressure will fall on Potter very quickly.
I know I’m stating the obvious but it is so difficult seeing our club being run by Del Boy in such an amateur manner.
I am West Ham born and bred, life long suffering Hammer and season ticket holder. I am also a Corporate businessman…… the reason I mention this is….. this club is an absolute shambles. It has been declining noticeably for at least 4 years (before the Euro win). The Board is complicit and inept and is taking the club away from the top table of the Premier League….. where we don’t belong anymore.
Spot on mate, it’s surprising that the board don’t act on this (minority members) and demand a more professional approach of the running of our club.
We are run like a Sunday league side
Spot on .. I felt compelled to write to Sullivan in 2017 suggesting he follows the Levy model at the time: Bale, Walker, Rose, Lennon, Dawson, Huddleston, Reid then Carrick and Defoe .. That team got them CL and the funds to get bigger .. We continued to buy tried and tested, i.e. old, expensive, high wages, high agent fee and no resale value .. Its now well and truly coming home to roost .. DS made his money by selling things for more than he paid, but doesn’t apply that to his football club ..
‘Ammers66’……. I’m interested to know how being a “Corporate businessman” actually helps with your diagnosis of “absolute shambles”. Have you had corporate interaction with the club or internal knowledge?
Or are you like the rest of us, just incredibly disappointed with recent on field performances but not a scooby as to what actually goes on behind the scenes?
I commented before that I read somewhere or other that the WHU board of directors (probably the chairman himself, his family, his agent chums who peddle their clients to him) think that the club chairman made better signings than the recently departed DoF.
My fear is that WHU board are completely missing the point and are completely deluded about their abilities and roles in what should be in a ‘modern’ football club.
WHU in the 1970s were run Mr Len’ Cearns and the families that owned the club through to the late 1980s who just didn’t want to / couldn’t invest in the club, build on the (modest) domestic success of FA cup wins and to take it forward with any sort of vision – oh hold on, it looks like history is repeating itself