Tiago Pinto is reportedly under consideration for the director of football role at West Ham United and, when you look back at his successes at AFC Bournemouth, Benfica and Roma, interest in the Portuguese deal-maker makes a lot of sense.
Former head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay followed Graham Potter out the door in the immediate aftermath of Nuno Espirito Santo’s arrival in September.
Hammers News can confirm vice-chair Karren Brady has made promises about a director of football hire.
And, according to Claret and Hugh, Nuno is backing West Ham United’s search for someone to provide a link between the coaching staff and the board, even if he did not see eye-to-eye with Edu Gaspar at Nottingham Forest.
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And Tiago Pinto ‘has been mentioned’.
Not quite as a direct replacement for Macaulay, but someone who could fill the void at a club who also moved on Tim Steidten and Rob Newman in recent times.
West Ham United-linked Tiago Pinto brought Dean Huijsen and Eli Kroupi to Bournemouth
Now, Pinto faced his fair share of criticism during a three-year spell as Roma’s sporting director, from 2021 to 2024.
A handful of expensive acquisitions – such as striker Eldor Shomorudov failed to spark – while others lambasted the Iberian for what they felt was an attachment to ‘market opportunity’ signings; short-term, big name additions such as Gini Wijnaldum, Renato Sanches and Romelu Lukaku.
But at both Bournemouth and Benfica – his current employers and the club where he started out in 2017 – Pinto often showed a real talent for spotting diamonds glinting in the mud and the undergrowth.
Following his appointment at the Vitality Stadium in May 2024, Pinto brought in Dean Huijsen from Juventus for £12.8 million.
Pinto talked up the ‘enormous potential’ of Rayan when the Brazilian sensation arrived from Vasca da Gama in the winter. Rayan has the third best Premier League points-per-game average of any January signing, narrowly ahead of West Ham duo Axel Disasi and Taty Castellanos.
Bournemouth used their multi-club model to snatch Eli Junior Kroupi from under West Ham noses in January 2025, but Pinto also played a key role here too. The appointment of Andoni Iraola, one of the most exciting young coaches in Europe, goes down as another coup.
There have been a few misses – Ben Gannon-Doak, Enes Unal and Luis Sinisterra, while Evanilson is hardly prolific for a £40 million striker – but Pinto also helped Bournemouth bank over £300 million via sales in the last two years. Huijsen joined Real Madrid for a massive profit. The Cherries also made huge sums on Ilya Zabarnyi [PSG], Antoine Semenyo [Manchester City], Milos Kerkez [Liverpool] and Dominic Solanke [Tottenham].
Amid concerns that West Ham may have to sell a few key players this summer, most certainly in the event of relegation, Pinto may be a good man to have around in the midst of financial uncertainty.
Tiago Pinto could be West Ham’s new DoF! 💵 ✍️
What do you notice about his most inspired signings?
Pinto helped Benfica make a massive profit on Darwin Nunez
Benfica also raked in in excess of £300 million during Pinto’s three-year tenure as sporting director, and that is without mentioning the deal which took Darwin Nunez – a £20 million signing from Spanish second-tier outfit Almeria – to Liverpool.
Something else that will appeal to West Ham’s bosses, meanwhile, is Pinto’s willingness to – in his own words – ‘do a lot with very little’.
Those aforementioned financial concerns mean the Hammers may have to rely heavily upon an exciting crop of academy talent, while pulling off more low-cost, high-reward signings such as Mateus Fernandes and El Hadji Malick Diouf.
Tiago Pinto could be West Ham’s new DoF! 💵 ✍️
What do you notice about his most inspired signings?
“Considering the economic situation and all the limitations, I think we managed to do a lot with very little,” Pinto told Cronache di Spogliatoio of his Roma stint.
Goalkeeper Mile Svilar and centre-back Evan Ndicka joined on free transfers from Benfica and Frankfurt. Now, they are among the best in their position in Serie A. Riccardo Calafiori, now of Arsenal, is among the academy talents to be fast-tracked into the first-team on Pinto’s watch.
“Our strategy worked there: [Nicola] Zalewski, [Eduardo] Bove, Calafiori, [Niccola] Pisilli. And also [Renato] Marin, now PSG’s third-choice goalkeeper.”
For a club who have wasted many a million on ageing, over-the-hill former greats, Pinto’s reputation for bringing high-earning veterans to Roma may be a concern.
Overlook the odd Wijnaldum misstep, though, and West Ham could land themselves a director with his finger on the pulse when it comes to building young, ambitious teams of the future.
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