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The first sign that Tim Steidten was to become an outsized public figure behind the scenes came when West Ham’s technical director – in what must be a first for the genre – became the subject of a terrace.
Reveling in the success of the club’s transfer raid to Ajax in the summer of 2023, Hammers supporters sang a fictional account of Steidten’s trip to ‘Dam’, where he picked up Edson Alvarez and Mohammed Kudus, while indulging in some of the Dutch capital’s concerts, er, cultural sights along the way.
While some, on social media in particular, still praise Steidten’s credentials in the transfer market, amid West Ham’s complicated season the German has found himself under increasing scrutiny. This persona may have become a little too public for his own benefit, with a report this week suggesting he could even be the next to follow sacked manager Julen Lopetegui out of the door in an Irons management shake-up.
Steidten has been the common denominator in successive fallouts with West Ham managers, with the final days of David Moyes and Lopetegui’s tenures playing out as the manager walked away from the first-team training ground.
The tensions between Steidten and Lopetegui are reflected particularly poorly. While Moyes always seemed wary of the club moving towards a more European-style hierarchy, Lopetegui had no problem, having signed up to work there and having enjoyed success in similar structures elsewhere. Yet his relationship with Steidten deteriorated.
New manager Graham Potter, appointed this week on a two-and-a-half year contract, pledged to “absolutely” work with Steidten when asked directly at his introductory press conference, but was not not really optimistic. He never mentioned Steidten by name, instead emphasizing the need for “alignment” and “unity” within the club and its staff as a whole.
This probably includes recruiting, the source of much friction over the past couple of seasons (in fairness, every club has internal disagreements in this area – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing).
There have been individual successes since Steidten joined the club 18 months ago, notably Kudus. But viewed as a collective, last summer’s frenzy, which saw nine players signed and around £130 million spent to launch the post-Moyes era, has not aged well.
Two managers left in eight months and club board won’t lay off themselves
The £25million fee paid for youngster Luis Guilherme, the result of several trips Steidten made to Brazil, could pay off in the long run, but certainly did not help the cause of Lopetegui, the 18-year-old years having only played 38 minutes at that point. his manager was fired.
Niclas Fullkrug, Borussia Dortmund’s star centre-forward, is yet to prove he can break West Ham’s curse in the position, with just two league goals and a history of unfortunate injuries to show for his time so far.
None of Max Kilman, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jean-Clair Todibo seem downright bad buys, but neither have three-quarters of a new defender fixed the defensive flaws that emerged in the latter part of Moyes’ reign. So far in the Premier League this season, the Hammers are conceding an average of two goals per game.
When Moyes left at the end of last season, Steidten was given greater control over transfers. The exact proportion of each of these deals – and in the cases of Guido Rodriguez and Carlos Soler, it appears Lopetegui was the driving force – is unknown, but is now moot.
Two managers have left in eight months and the club’s board will not be fired; If there were to be further accountability and repercussions, Steidten’s might be the only head to roll.
