Tim Steidten admitted how excited he was at taking control of West Ham’s day to day running after the power struggle with David Moyes which saw Steidten banned from the dressing room. He has overseen the summer transfer window spend when ten players were brought into West Ham – regardless of which picks were his and which were Julen Lopetegui’s, (it is pretty obvious who chose which player!) – the system in place at London Stadium means the head coach reports to Steidten himself.
So the buck stops with him.
The awful signings of the summer – the vastly overpriced Niclas Fullkrug and unseen Luis Guilherme were ‘fanfare’ Steidten signings. Rodriguez and Soler were brought to the UK and sanctioned by Steidten after Lopetegui asked for them: All have proved monumental wastes of money.
Now we approach another transfer window and I’m worried: West Ham have a desperate need for younger faster and fitter players – our is still the second oldest squad in the Premier League after £140 million has been spent.
Has the message got through?
Steidten’s credibility and future at West Ham must be on the line after such calamitous £60 million (plus!) waste on overpriced or unproven talent. It is imperative that there are no more ‘has-beens’ from overseas leagues, no more slow, ponderous ageing midfielders.
Tim Steidten was described as a brilliant deal maker: Time for him to show the doubters at West Ham that he can deliver high quality recruits rather than mediocrity or a ‘fingers-crossed punt’.
You wouldn’t know it from the standards of some of our recruiting, but Moritz Steidten, Tim’s brother, is employed by West Ham United as ‘head of international scouting‘ for heavens sake: rumour has it that nobody even sees him at the club.
So, the results in January will be watched very carefully from inside and outside the club because the jury is still out. Time to deliver, Tim.
Tim was only brought in for the occasional pearl. If we can make a profit of £50million on a single player then Tim’s expenses have been a great investment. Unfortunately these deals are few and far between.
There is no scope for scaling up the numbers with this approach. Tim’s forte is not finding 20 players to fit the economic idea. However, having got the job, having the title Director of Football, he has been under pressure to introduce as many gems as he can. To that end, he has done well. Loads of suggestions and upgrades.
Trouble is that he does not have to put the team together and engineer play and results on the pitch. It came as no surprise that Wee Davey appreciated his input up to a point but needed help and not distractions from the task in hand.
Tim is just an agent in West Ham clothing. Director of Football – I don’t think so. More like a Chief Recruitment Officer.
The Manager is the top guide on footballing matters. At a football club, these are the fundamental matters. Bringing in a new manager is fraught with jeopardy. The first job is making the most of the existing squad. Only after steadying the ship and getting the management machine purring can the changes be made.
Alan Pardew was thrown out after his team was disrupted by having to play Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez. ‘Gifts’ put in the shop window by Kia, their owner. All worked out well for Kia Joorabchian. Not so for WHU. Following Pardew’s departure, we put a safe pair of hands in charge. Alan Curbishley steadied the decline but never achieved any great heights. Much as he did with Charlton Athletic.
We were warned about being careful what we wished for as the Moyes Out Brigade clamoured for a change. The change needed to take account of the existing set up before wholesale fantasy appointments. The nuanced approach may have been better,
Still hoping for and expecting better from our club as soon as possible.
Come On You Irons
Should’ve said – jury out on the Brazilian lad but we’ll never get to find out if he is any good unless someone gives him a chance
C&H is getting equally boring and predictable with the constant propaganda against Tim as the uninspiring pre-game news conferences by JLo!
It’s quite incredulous to believe so called West Ham fans on C&H are siding with Sully rather than criticise his role and hold him accountable for his actions.
It is about time that C&H stopped quoting top sources and the poisonous rhetoric to achieve Sullivan’s aim of scapegoating Tim and forcing him out!
If it’s not a story about Tim’s failures this summer, it’s repeating ridiculous transfer targets by dubious journalists or how Fullkrug is still injured.
We will never see a poll on C&H asking the fans if Sully should be removed from interviewing our’ next coach…..why is that?
Why do we not get polls asking if we want Sully and Will Salthouse to have no influence over signings?
Why are we not getting asked if we want Kretinsky to buy out Sullivan and take full control?
I’ve been saying for some time that a proper review of the players brought in needs to be undertaken. It needs to be done by Kretinsky or the Board as a whole. I was very supportive of Steidten’s appointment but something has gone very wrong. We can all make a guess at who is whose pick but it will be exactly that, a guess. Steidten stood right, left and centre for every transfer, he was the face of West Ham so he certainly bears a large amount of responsibility…………..but how much responsibility is what should be subject to the review.
The argument that he had too many players to get in a short time has merit but I believe this is diluted by the fact that identifying & getting in players is his core job. He should have had a shortlist identified. His speciality is supposed to be young, less known non UK based players who can more or less go straight into the first team…….that’s what I understood anyway. Guilherme……maybe qualifies. Tobido, not quite so young but let’s say he is a hit. Fulkrug, nope. Wan Bisaka, not ‘young’ and been on our radar since before Steidten joined us, so unsure who ‘claims’ him. Summerville not based overseas but let’s say he is a hit (for Steidten, he is defo a hit in terms of performance). Kilman, most likely Lopetegui’s choice but we paid far too much for him, which is Steidten’s responsibility but equally no doubt a red line for JLo. Then there is Soler and Rodriguez. Relatively cheap given no transfer fees and you get what you pay for. In our case sod all pace! Guilherme, Kilman and Fulkrug monies determined who we could get thereafter and I suspect two of those are 100% Steidten’s choices and definitely his negotiating.
All that said, I’m not anti Steidten. I just want a proper review of responsibilities in all these dealings. JLo isn’t up to the job but if he is doing it with a hand tied behind his back because the vast majority of transfers are Steidten’s responsibility OR because he starved us of funds by getting in Guilherme who at the moment doesn’t look like having a quick impact on the team, then Tim needs to go as well.
They gave him enough rope to hang himself looks like it’s working and understandable why Moyes barred him Too much power has gone to his head he thinks he owns it Egotistical know it all and look what that bought us pick a name from the hat
Trust c&h to do sullivan’s legwork.
There’s one massive problem at the club and it’s the man who decided to kneecap his own DoF by forcing him to share his responsibilies with a completely inappropriate manager and one very specific agent. We should have let our DoF choose a manager to build a team with, not this one for Peter, one for Paul transfer policy.
Fortunately no one is buying it. It’s it’s between Tim and Sullivan/Brady/Salthouse, 99% of the support are picking Tim every time.
I have to agree with the other comments here.The problem here goes straight to the top and not Steidten.The manager was a Sullivan choice and always looked very poor.throw into the mix players all approaching 30 or well beyond and we have got a slow,predictable bunch of strangers.No sign of any youthful players being pushed through to the ist team.Earthy is a perfect example.just broke into the 1st team then is sent out on loan for the season.its all disjointed and it shows.
Three sensible posts before me.
The problem is with the one that holds the purse strings.
I feel he’s never really been a proper Director Of with this you can have 3 players, the manager can have 3 players, Sullivan can have 3 players. That’s not how a Director Of Football operates. Sullivan picked the manager and holds the purse strings so I’m not jumping on it’s all Tim’s fault. He’s never really been able to operate as a proper Director of Football should with the hand brake and ten ton weight in Sullivan holding this club back. I feel you should look elsewhere for the blame of what a shambles the season has been so far this season. It starts with manager and the one in the board room who had the final say in giving him the job .
Steidten is supposed to be able to conduct statistical analyses over time and so find promising players that others miss, so called pearl diving. Bring players in slowly but steadily.
What he’s had is mismanaged transfer business going back a long time which meant that he had to bring large numbers in during the Summer window. Bring players in as a matter of urgency all at once.
The two things are totally different and I don’t think that anyone can get everything right under the second scenario that is amateurish and asking for trouble.
Well said john the most sensible comment I have read on this site for a long time
Again ….. nailed it John 🎯
John – wouldn’t you expect Tim to have been sitting on a few nuggets ready to fly into action the moment Moyes left the building?
After all Tim spent a year being supposedly suppressed by Moyes. Days and nights squirrelled away in his analytical cupboard pouring over names and youthful gems across the world.
Frankly none of the signing could be considered hidden gems other than Guilherme.
We’ll have another major rebuild at the end of this season as well with all the players out of contract.
Not sure I trust Sully, Tim, or Lopi with building a youthful team ready to compete and play attractive football.