Former boss David Moyes has explained why he doesn’t agree with the new West Ham transfer structure as pressure mounts on Tim Steidten.
The heat is on at West Ham and not only regarding manager Julen Lopetegui.
West Ham’s owners are said to be considering sacking Lopetegui if they don’t beat Everton.
But technical director Tim Steidten is under the spotlight too.
A journalist has claimed the German’s position is also under scrutiny.
It is claimed the West Ham ownership are ‘far from happy’ with two of Steidten’s signings in the summer.
That is a world away from the narrative which surrounded West Ham’s window activity a few months ago.
With Steidten in full control of recruitment following the departure of David Moyes, the Hammers were widely regarded to have ‘won the window’.
Unfortunately no points or trophies are handed out for that particular honour.
And there has been little evidence West Ham have improved as a result of their £155m rebuild around nine new signings.
It has left their former boss Moyes feeling vindicated.
As revealed by Hammers News way back in February, the real reason Moyes did not want to sign the new contract offered to him in December was because he wasn’t happy with the terms.
Those terms were that he would lose his power of veto on transfers, ceding that to Steidten instead.
And that his son David would not be part of the new scouting department, with Steidten bringing in his brother Moritz and Max Hahn.
Hence why, at the time, Moyes insisted the contract ‘must be right for me and my family’.
Rightly or wrongly, as Moyes has now confirmed again, West Ham withdrew the contract offer when he refused to sign it in December.
West Ham’s promising season petered out. It dissolved into a bit of a mess by the end as Moyes banned Steidten from being around the first team after the Hammers very publicly courted other managers.
Now with Steidten and Moyes’ successor Lopetegui reportedly clinging on to their jobs, the former boss believes his view on the new setup is valid.
What Moyes said about Steidten transfer structure at West Ham
Vindicated Moyes has aimed a clear dig at Steidten over the West Ham transfer structure as pressure mounts.
The man who led West Ham to their first trophy for 43 years believes the manager should always be the one with the ultimate say on signings.
And he has explained in great detail why he doesn’t like the technical director setup.
“I actually think manager’s roles have been diluted quite a lot,” Moyes said on The Overlap.
“I think people thought we’ll make the manager’s job easier by bringing in more coaches, more staff, more analysts, more this, more that.
“But ultimately I still think the manager has to have his finger in every situation and he has to be checking it.
“Most people don’t want to be making the decisions, they don’t really want to make the final decision. What you find is, if I say to you, if you’re the technical director, ‘Do you want to sign a player?’ That becomes quite a big decision when you’re spending millions and millions of pounds.
“I also think there’s a lot of people making those choices who’ve not really got a huge professional career behind them or experience.
Vindicated Moyes aims clear dig at Steidten as pressure mounts
“I’m not saying (they’ve not got a place), some of the people who are in it (without much experience in the professional game) are fantastic. But it still doesn’t mean to say that they’re the right ones. Why would a young boy out of university who’s good at analytics and checking it up, why would he be better than Gary Neville for example at picking a player who should join Salford for example.
“So I actually think, I don’t know if we’ve got it a little bit upside down at the moment thinking ‘Hey we’d better get technical directors in and we better get new sporting directors in, people who know how these things work’. Some of the best people are some of the managers who are out of work at the moment. I don’t know why some of these clubs don’t consider ex managers as technical directors.
“There is a huge change behind the scenes on how it works and I think the manager’s roles are slightly diluted.”
Moyes says in his previous roles at clubs such as Everton he would spend weeks watching a player before making a decision.
And the former Hammers boss says he would bounce the idea off people he trusted in his staff.
The Scot accepts nowadays the fight for quality signings is more intense and fast-paced, meaning the days of scouting players over the course of weeks and months are all but gone.
But he believes owners are now less trusting of mangers to be the ones deciding which players to bring in, hence the appointment of technical directors like Steidten.
“It’s as if the ownerships don’t have the belief in the manager to be the one who should make the decision on the players who are coming into the building,” Moyes added.
“And I think to myself ‘why would the owner think the manager shouldn’t be the one who’s doing that?’
“Most of the time you’d say the manager will have as much knowledge as anybody, so why are you bringing in somebody who you know to do that.”
Moyes’ preferred way of working doesn’t always work out for the best, though.
The Scot has been left red-faced by Viktor Gyokeres after electing not to sign the Swede for just £17.5m at West Ham, despite watching him in person a number of times.
Gyokeres ended up joining Sporting instead where he has cemented his place as the most in-form striker in world football over the last 18 months.
Last week West Ham discreetly installed a tribute to Moyes at the London Stadium.
There is no lack of irony that West Ham’s game against another of his old clubs Everton could now decide the fate of not only Lopetegui but Steidten too.
What a difference a year has made at West Ham.
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