When making a case for either Steve Nickson or Nils Koppen – the two men who emerged as the frontrunners for a director role at West Ham United – there are obvious pros to both appointments.
In the case for the former, Nickson helped construct a Newcastle side who not only qualified for the Champions League after years of Mike Ashley-era mediocrity, but one which also ended their 70-year domestic trophy drought against Liverpool at Wembley.
Did we mention that Amanda Staveley is a big admirer of the ‘amazing’ Nickson? If indeed there is some new investment arriving at the London Stadium – Hammers News can confirm that Staveley’s camp have been ‘blown away’ by how the fans have rallied following relegation – one suspects she would have been on board with the appointment of Newcastle’s soon-to-be-departing head of recruitment.
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According to a report from Sky Sports on Friday afternoon, though, Nils Koppen has overtaken Nickson as the most likely appointment to a new-look West Ham United set-up.
Currently at FC Copenhagen, Koppen may lack Nickson’s considerable experience in English football. But for a club in West Ham’s predicament, his arrival could prove to be an inspired one.
Nils Koppen overtakes Steve Nickson as West Ham United near director hire
While Nickson helped bring Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali to Newcastle following the Saudi Arabian takeover at St James’ Park, Nils Koppen has a reputation for thriving on much smaller budgets.
West Ham will be among the most deep-pocketed clubs in England’s second tier.
But after spending over £300 million net in the last five years while dropping from the European spots to the Championship, relegation gives West Ham the chance to restructure their entire recruitment strategy.
Last summer, extra focus was already being placed on promising youngsters with substantial re-sale potential. See Mateus Fernandes and El Hadji Malick Diouf. And Koppen’s willingness to ‘think outside the box’ while taking a ‘creative’ approach arguably makes him an ideal candidate to take this plan forward.
During his spell as the technical director at Rangers from 2024 to 2025, Koppen spoke about the importance of building a younger squad with an emphasis on potential, hunger and affordability.
Some of Koppen’s best deals include Ismail Saibari, Johan Bakayoko, Jefte, and Hamza Igamane. At PSV and Rangers respectively, he spent a combined fee of less than £3 million on the fresh-faced quartet.
Once Morocco’s World Cup sensation Saibari joins Bayern Munich for £52 million, the four will have moved on for a total of £86 million.
“It’s important to look all over the globe where we can compete financially to get the best talents to the club,” Koppen told Rangers Review during his time at Ibrox. “We don’t want to lose the focus on the local market [but] I think to look worldwide gives us more opportunity to sign these talents. Everyone realises that the UK market is getting difficult financially.
“We need to be more creative, think outside of the box and look for profiles that are suitable for our league even, if they’re from Brazil or Morocco [like Jefte and Igamane].
“It’s a big advantage to get that desire into the dressing room and hunger to take the next steps. It’s a good thing to have that burning desire, but also we’re looking for winners and players who can raise the standards on and off the pitch.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re 18 or 25-years-old.”
If West Ham appoint Koppen as their new ‘director of player recruitment’, as Sky Sports put it, expect to see a summer spent focusing less on ageing, over-the-hill high-earners – the Niclas Fullkrugs and James Ward-Prowses – and more on players like Fernandes, Diouf, or a Mohamadou Kante.
Koppen looks like the right man to rebuild West Ham
Now, this is not to say Nickson would have been unsuitable for such a role.
He kept Newcastle chugging along despite the shoestring restrictions imposed on him by the tight-fisted Mike Ashley, after all. Ayoze Perez, Allan Saint-Maximin and former West Ham striker Callum Wilson all proved to be excellent additions at relatively low fees.
But Nickson has also spent the last five years operating on a budget well in excess of that available to the Hammers. Furthermore, amid claims that Nickson has been left frustrated by the growing influence of Eddie Howe and his nephew Andy in the recruitment department, it is not entirely certain how much of a role he really played in Newcastle’s Saudi-era transformation.
In contrast, the PSV Eindhoven side fresh off three successive Eredivisie titles has Koppen’s fingerprints all over it. The wait for domestic silverware north of the border drags on, but a notoriously hard-to-please Rangers fanbase had nothing but positive things to say about Koppen when reflecting on his brief spell last week.
“One of Rangers’ biggest mistakes of last summer was letting this guy go,” Scottish football reporter Jonny McFarlane wrote on X in response to West Ham’s interest.
Last summer represented Rangers’ biggest spend since the turn of the century. The majority of those high-profile signings flopped as the Gers finished third, and it is no coincidence that so much money was wasted without Koppen overseeing things.
Having squandered millions themselves in the dying embers of the David Sullivan regime, hiring Koppen feels like a step in the right direction for a West Ham side who need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era.
An emphasis on young, hungry talent available for affordable sums? A guy willing to look further afield and pluck bargains out of less-heralded markets, as he did when PSV raided Genk’s academy for Saibari and Rangers brought in an unknown Igamane from Morocco?
As solid an appointment as Steve Nickson would have been, Nils Koppen could be the man to really bring about change.
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