There have been a few negative press articles about West Ham this season, leaked to the media which Claret & Hugh covered on Sunday.
Sadly, a lot of the column inches are credited to Tim Steidten who has allegedly been vocal about the managerial position and transfers and that he is annoyed many of these were overlooked by the board. A club source has indicated that the recent report is untrue.
Given the mixed reaction to the press articles I feel it’s only fair to focus on the facts.
If we look back to the working relationship between Steidten and David Moyes it became clear at the end it had completely broken down, and Moyes stated to the press that the German was banned from both the training ground and changing rooms before and after a game, due to in his words, “a conflict of interest”. General views on this were that our former gaffer was at loggerheads on transfers and ultimately made it clear he had the final decision and wanted to work with a smaller squad.
One player Steidten desperately wanted to sign was Ibrahim Osman, a nineteen year old Ghanaian from Nordsjaelland who Brighton subsequently bought and loaned to Feyenoord, where he has registered one appearance so far.
Steidten’s chance to shine
Fast forward to the summer of 2024 and with Julen Lopetegui joining as Head Coach, the war chest was in the hands of Steidten to find and convince players to join the West Ham project.
The board have on paper been fully supportive to the German. Moritz Steidten has been brought in within the recruitment team, having formerly worked with his brother at Werder Bremen. Whilst, Maxmillian Hahn joined last February from Werder Bremen as Head of Technical Scouting.
The summer window was an exciting time for many Hammers fans, there clearly was the constraint of PSR which was evident elsewhere by clubs that restricted transfers and some interesting deals were made by Premier League teams in order to balance their books.
Steidten headed to Brazil and it looked like Fabricio Bruno would be joining from Flamengo, along with Wesley Gassova from Corinthians, yet our German Director of Football returned empty handed. A few weeks later he jet setted back to South America and headed back to the U.K. with Luis Guilherme in a deal that cost West Ham £25m.
The Hammers had already parted with £40m for Max Kilman who was Lopeteugui’s signing having worked with the player previously at Wolves.
After a silent period, the Hammers then became very busy in the transfer market, with a few outgoings, and no less than seven further incoming transfers. The fans were happy and general consensus in the media was that West Ham had completed some excellent transfer business.
A job well done
The only question at the time was around our failure to sign Jhon Duran, yet this only became more relevant when the player hit a rich vein of form. The reality is, as I mentioned in a previous article, Villa didn’t want to sell the player at the time we expressed an interest, as they had allayed their PSR issues with previous transfers. A £40m bid was not sufficient- and Steidten changed his direction to that of Fullkrug who he knew from the German leagues. It was imperative that West Ham brought in a striker before the window closed.
Steidten is also credited to have pointed out in the wider press that he was keen to sign Canadian international Jonathan David who becomes a free agent in 2025, citing that West Ham walked away as the fee being quoted by his club Lille was too high. However, Jonathan David himself contradicts this and has said that “There were a couple of offers and we didn’t finish the deal. Ultimately we made the decision to stay”
He will have plenty of options to choose from, so it would have been a difficult transfer to complete.
It should also be acknowledged that this isn’t a theme restricted to just West Ham. There have been alot of rumblings at Newcastle regarding the relationship between Eddie Howe and Director of football, Paul Mitchell.
Regarding West Ham I can only hope that both teams work well together going forward, in a season where there is great expectations to deliver. I don’t believe that both parties can’t or don’t want to work together, Fabrizio Romano even stated earlier in September that “Steidten is backing Lopetegui all the way.”
It is difficult to separate fact from fiction yet what is consistent is the media frenzy and it is imperative that the clubs comms team clamp down on these constant leaks.