Tim Steidten led the charge to bring Niclas Fullkrug to West Ham United in the summer transfer window.
The signing of Niclas Fullkrug was a questionable one at the time, but the West Ham fans put our faith in Tim Steidten, what with his supposed exceptional transfer acumen.
However, the majority of us have already been proven right, with the 31-year-old having desperately struggled to impress at the London Stadium.
Fullkrug has been out injured since early September, with no official return date in sight, and the Hammers are said to be trying ‘alternative remedies’ in order to get him back ready to play.
Then earlier this week, things took a quite frankly ridiculous turn when the Hammers had to photoshop the German into the official team photo.
Fullkrug will be doing everything in his power to get back to full fitness right now.
He just can’t catch a break though it seems, and things got a lot worse for him during the international break.
Niclas Fullkrug dealt blow with Tim Steidten left red-faced
Swapping the Bundesliga for the Premier League certainly hasn’t been a smooth transition for Niclas Fullkrug has it.
In fairness to him, he’s hardly played for us, and is still yet to start a Premier League game, so it’s still very early days.
However, the early signs are not good.
The Germany international seems to be well off the pace required to succeed at the highest level of the English game.
Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong, but the outlook for Fullkrug seems bleak right now.
And he’s just been dealt yet another big blow to his confidence.
Borussia Mönchengladbach striker Tim Kleindienst seems to have firmly cemented himself as Germany’s number one striker now.
The 29-year-old has been in fine form in the Bundesliga this season, with six goals and four assists to his name in 10 games so far (Transfermarkt).
To make matters worse for Fullkrug, Kleindienst scored two goals during Germany’s 7-0 rout of Bosnia Herzegovina in Freiburg on Saturday night.
It seems like it’s one piece of bad news after another for the 31-year-old Hammers hitman at the moment.
He must be feeling rock bottom right now, and I reckon Steidten might be feeling the pressure as well.
Tim Steidten has some difficult questions to answer
The German arrived at the London Stadium in July 2023.
And if we’re being honest, he hardly has a great record does he? The only real success that Steidten has had so far is the signing of Mohammed Kudus.
But let’s be real here, anybody could have picked the Ghanaian – it was obvious that he’d be a star.
It frustrates me that Steidten – dubbed the ‘pearl diver’ due to his uncanny knack of unearthing undiscovered gems at Bayer Leverkusen – has seemingly favoured moves for older players at West Ham.
Niclas Fullkrug is a prime example of that – Tim Steidten should have brought someone like Jhon Duran or Jonathan David to West Ham instead.
The 45-year-old director of football must be feeling the heat right now.
Fullkrug’s struggles may well end up defining Steidten’s time at the London Stadium unfortunately.
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