While the owners must clearly take the ultimate responsibility and blame, Tim Steidten has a lot to answer for over West Ham’s current mess.
Nuno Espirito Santo has inherited a shambles at West Ham.
The Hammers sit second bottom of the table ahead of a crucial run of matches which could go a long way to deciding their Premier League survival.
There have been encouraging signs in Nuno’s first two matches.
But West Ham’s start under Graham Potter was so abysmal, Nuno will want to be taking at least seven or eight points from big clashes with Brentford, Leeds, Newcastle and Burnley before the November international break.
Failure to do that and it will be a long way back for West Ham in their hopes of remaining in the Premier League come what May.
Nuno has it all to do after inheriting a shambles at West Ham
As far as the blame game goes for West Ham’s predicament, it’s clear the ownership are now front and centre.
The malaise in east London – which has seen the team win just 17 of their 64 Premier League matches since January 2024 – set in under David Moyes.
Julen Lopetegui was a disaster, becoming the club’s shortest-serving permanent manager in history.
Somehow, Potter was even worse, winning a pathetic six games from 25 matches over nine months.
But one man who has had a huge hand in the club’s predicament is Tim Steidten.
The former Hammers technical director was sacked when Potter arrived in January.
There is no disputing Steidten could make deals happen.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
With the benefit of it now, though, it is clear one man in particular – besides the owners – must shoulder much of the blame for West Ham’s current state.
Steidten’s new shame has become clear as a West Ham flop he signed is named the worst in the Premier League.
When the Hammers brought Steidten over after his departure from Bayer Leverkusen, the hope was he could build a team in the German club’s image around young, exciting players.
Steidten’s new shame as West Ham flop named Premier League’s worst
That was Steidten’s stated aim.
But just 18 months into what he stated was going to be a five-year project, Steidten was gone.
It is now clear he largely squandered the best part of West Ham’s £155m spend last summer.
And one of his most controversial signings is now being highlighted as the worst.
Not just Steidten or West Ham’s worst – but the worst in the entire Premier League.
When Steidten brought his pal Niclas Fullkrug over from Borussia Dortmund, eyebrows were raised among Hammers fans.
Supporters wanted to see the club go out and sign a young, pacy, powerful forward after years of cutting corners with the most important position on the pitch.
Fullkrug had a lengthy history of serious injuries but Steidten pressed ahead with the move at £27m.
That is some £10m more than Dortmund initially had in mind when deciding to offload the ageing, injury-prone forward.
Fullkrug duly spent six of his first nine months at the club out with two serious injuries.
After a full pre-season, Fullkrug then broke down again in training with Germany during the September break.
He only missed one game but tore a group of thigh muscles at Rush Green last week and will now be out for an extended period yet again.
Hammers crock flop Fullkrug officially the worst striker around
The injuries alone are already marking Fullkrug out as being one of West Ham’s worst ever signings.
Now the statistics are underlining that fact.
After replacing Potter, Nuno named Fullkrug as his starting striker in both his opening games against Everton and Arsenal.
The Hammers flop was the worst player on the pitch in both matches.
After Nuno confirmed Fullkrug will be out for an extended period, now the world’s leading football data experts have named the West Ham striker the worst in the Premier League.
WhoScored have produced a Premier League Worst XI from players who have played at least 350 minutes or more.
And Fullkrug earns a place up front alongside Danny Welbeck – but with the Hammers man having a much worse average rating of 6.25 – the worst of any striker in the top flight.
While Steidten sits with his feet up enjoying semi retirement, West Ham – and the club’s fans – have to suffer the consequences of his woeful transfer business.
That’s before you even stop to consider he agreed to pay £40m to get Max Kilman for Lopetegui, spent £20m on Luis Guilherme and £32m on another big Hammers flop, Jean-Clair Todibo.
The £34m Edson Alvarez, signed by Steidten the summer before, has been so bad a buyer couldn’t be found and he was loaned out to Fenerbahce.
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