Jack Sullivan, son of West Ham chairman David Sullivan, has revealed that Hammers director of football Tim Steidten was interviewed separately by both Daniel Kretinsky and David Sullivan himself.
Jack was speaking on the highly recommended Eventful Lives podcast, produced by West Ham fan and entrepreneur Dodge Woodall.
During the 80-minute long interview, the former West Ham women’s team chairman spoke about his time at the club and revealed some details about the new infrastructure at the London Stadium.
Woodall asked Sullivan whose idea it had been to recruit Steidten as director of football, to which he replied, “It was a board decision.”
Jack then explained that Kretinsky interviewed Steidten, and the senior Sullivan eventually came to the decision to appoint the German to run football operations at West Ham.
The revelation provides an intriguing insight into the Czech billionaire’s involvement in the club, which is often reported as being minimal. However, if he was involved in the identification and recruitment process of Steidten, it would appear that he is far more engaged in the decision-making process at the club than we had been led to believe.
The story matches up with rumours that persisted at the time which suggested that Kretinsky was unhappy with the money wasted on Gianluca Scamacca in particular and wanted to implement safeguards to stop the club haemorrhaging money.
Congratulations to Dodge on an excellent interview with Jack, which is well worth a listen if you haven’t done so already.
