There was a time not too long ago when I was uncertain who was deciding upon transfers at West Ham.
Of course, we all had our suspicions, but signings seemed to centre around whether they were David Moyes’ boys or agent-led suggestions by owner David Sullivan.
The players who succeeded carried little intrigue. I mean, where’s the interest in investigating who signed Areola, Paqueta, or Emerson? However, when a transfer goes wrong, culprits need to be found, and blame pinned on someone, and I’m as guilty as anyone in that regard.
We all knew who was responsible for the disastrous signing of Kalvin Phillips. David Moyes was credited with that error, although we can probably thank our lucky stars the board intervened and decided against an obligation-to-buy clause on an already expensive loan deal.
Said Benrahma was certainly a player whom many debated long and hard about. Most considered him to be a David Sullivan signing due to his lack of suitability to David Moyes’ playing style, but the same could be said of Gianluca Scamacca and many others.
The person responsible for signing Vlasic will forever remain a mystery
Therefore, it’s incredibly encouraging to see a proper transfer system developing where the old guessing game of who’s in charge seems to have faded away. Sure, there is the obvious manager’s pick in the form of Max Kilman, but Guilherme, Summerville, and Fullkrug are transfers that have clearly been planned by Hammers director of football Tim Steidten.
I’m sure there will be some input from Lopetegui over certain signings, which is only healthy. But I no longer get the feeling that the head coach is being compelled to accept players, or indeed that the manager is forcing through bad deals that are crippling the club.
I am still none the wiser as to who purchased Nikola Vlasic, and perhaps it’s a story best left untold. Fortunately, I can’t see a situation where the club purchases a player for £28m and the manager refuses to play him… and that’s what I call progress!
What about the Ings and outs of the Danny deal mate? My deerstalker is inclined towards Sully.
Thought that was a Moyes panic buy, could be wrong
Maybe, but I thought it was a panic ‘present’ from Sully cos Moyes wouldn’t make a decision.
Hugill??? Someone please please let me in on that one
That one was defo Moyes, doing his old club Preston a favour.
Definitely Moyes a present for his old Preston mate’s no one else had even heard of him
Strange thing about these horror signings was that … millions was wasted on below par players.
If that was done in a reputable company, theculprit is identified, and fired.
How Moyes or whoever could do this, without correction or brought to book, is mighty baffling.
The other sad and damaging activity is the non-appreciation of our academy talent, with the majority of these overlooked for 1st team opportunities.
And this under Mark Noble’s watch ???
Now a new technical director and senior coach has to correct all this, and bring us to happy days again.
Coyi – God bless West Ham
Whose signing was it
Whi’s is who is or who has
Definitely Moyes a present for his old Preston mate’s no one else had even heard of him of him
Thankfully we now have Tim 🙏