On the summer transfer deadline day of 2023, West Ham signed Scottish midfielder Andy Irving from SK Austria Klagenfurt for an undisclosed fee. He was immediately loaned back to the Austrian Bundesliga club.
Former Technical Director Tim Steidten identified Irving while scouting in Germany, describing the deal as “risk-free.” Since then, the midfielder has settled in well at the London Stadium, earning a Scotland call-up in October 2024.
However, the exact details of the transfer have remained unclear. In April 2024, Klagenfurt Managing Director Gunther Goronzel told Sky Sports Austria:
“We will see whether he will actually train with West Ham and play or whether he will continue to be loaned out.”
At the time, reports suggested that West Ham were forming an affiliate partnership with Klagenfurt, similar to their previous arrangement with Dutch side VVV-Venlo nine years ago. That partnership, initiated by former Head of Player Development Terry Westley, helped players gain Government Body Endorsement (GBE) points required for Premier League registration.
In September 2023, The Daily Mail claimed West Ham could loan players to Klagenfurt, hinting at an affiliate relationship. However, no official announcement was made, and no player exchanges have taken place between the clubs.
While Brighton successfully operates an affiliate model through Royale Union SG—facilitated by Tony Bloom’s ownership of both clubs—West Ham has no stake in Klagenfurt.
Claret & Hugh can now lay this story to rest. After approaching a senior source for clarification, we can exclusively confirm:
“Klagenfurt never were an affiliate club.”
Guillerme may turn out to be a great player and C&H in the future will pay tribute to the pearl diver
However with the massive rebuild that was needed and the PSR concerns I don’t think that he made sense as one of the first buys – the Head Coach should have been consulted by the Director of Football to find out what the priority was (like an energetic box to box midfielder or another central defender or a fit and pacy and ready striker)
That was clever of Steidten to find a Scottish player playing in Austria while he was scouting in Germany. I doubt David Moyes attention would have been drawn by hearing about a Scottish player playing in Austria. No im sure he’d have had nothing to do with it.
I remember when people on here moaned that Andy Irving was another bad signing (being proved wrong now), back then he was labelled a Moyes signing, now he’s a Steidten pearl 😊⚒️⚒️
Whatever the case with affiliate clubs Irving is our perfect example of Steidtens pearl diving.
He’s now worth a lot more than whatever we paid for him and we have a first team starter but it takes time, it’s not something that happens in five minutes we bought Irving eighteen months ago and he’s only just made his first start.
We also have Guilherme who was not put out on loan but made first team appearances far faster and Mohammadou Kante who was put out on loan and who we know little about. All pearl dives.
Irving is a success, Guilherme is ahead of Irving in his development, Kante is an unknown. It will be some months yet until we know.
Meanwhile the next pearls will be going to places other than here, perhaps Sullivan can be trained to do it, or perhaps not.
If they were to both follow the same timescale as Irving they would make first starts in about a years time.
Agreed John. Midfielder Mohamadou Kanté joined on a 5 year permanent deal in August last year from Paris FC and was immediately loaned back for the 2024/25 season, and is yet to make his Ligue 2 debut. Only turned 19 in September and scored 3 goals in 21 games for their under 19’s prior to his move, but Tim must have been confident to offer a 5 year deal and he is said to be highly regarded. It’s a low risk low cost move and one to keep an eye on.
If he is anything like his namesake we will certainly have a special talent on our hands!
Thanks for clarifying Matt. As you say the Mail hinted at a possible affiliate partnership and it is something Brighton have done successfully. I wonder if that is something Graham may explore here as part of his longer term strategy for youth development?
I don’t think the head coach has any say who a Football Club affiliates with
Thank goodness you’ve cleared that up. I’ve been worrying about that for months!
🤣
The article could literally condensed to the last sentence………..