Tim Steidten has received plenty of criticism from the West Ham United fans lately, rightly so in my opinion.
West Ham appointed Tim Steidten as the club’s director of football in the summer of 2023, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s yet to live up to his ‘pearl diver’ moniker.
Sure, he’s made some good signings, but he’s had a lot of misses as well, including the likes of Niclas Fullkrug, Luis Guilherme and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
His failure to bring Jhon Duran to the London Stadium is what angered the Hammers fans the most.
Somewhat surprisingly, Steidten has been linked with the Arsenal director of football role, but that’s just paper talk in my opinion.
The 45-year-old still has to prove himself at the London Stadium before he’s even considered for a role with one of the top clubs.
He’s made some big errors during his time in East London, but he deserves credit for one particular deal that he received a lot of flack for at the time.
£5m West Ham exit was a Tim Steidten masterstroke
The West Ham fans are waiting for Steidten to bring in the type of players he did whilst at Bayer Leverksuen.
The German side went on to win the Bundesliga title last season as a result of some of his recruitment.
Whilst the German is facing some fierce scrutiny right now, it’s worth remembering that he has overseen some excellent deals for us as well.
None more so than one of the exits in the summer.
James Ward-Prowse left West Ham to join Nottingham Forest on a season-long loan deal – one worth £5 million for the Hammers.
Since then, there have been Hammers fans questioning why we let him go, only to bring in Carlos Soler.
Well, in all honesty, the 30-year-old has been really poor for Forest so far this season.
James Ward-Prowse stats for Nottingham Forest
The former Southampton midfielder’s numbers this season make for some pretty grim reading.
In five Premier League appearances for the East Midlands outfit so far, Ward-Prowse has made just 0.6 tackles and only 0.2 key passes per match. He has had just one shot on target and has registered a really poor 18% cross accuracy rate (Who Scored).
The midfielder has been sent off once and has failed to score a goal or register an assist either.
Those are some really poor stats if you ask me, and we all have to remember just how little he offered us outside of his set-pieces last season.
He was little more than a traffic cone for the Hammers at times, with his lack of mobility and athleticism causing us all sorts of problems in the Premier League.
In my opinion, Tim Steidten moving James Ward-Prowse on from West Ham was a very good deal.
However, it remains to be seen whether Carlos Soler was a worthwhile addition.
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