West Ham are arguably facing a more important summer transfer window than last year and have big decisions to make.
- Hammers News exclusive
There was a mammoth 21-player overhaul at West Ham last summer.
Make no mistake it was needed after David Moyes left the Hammers with the smallest and second oldest squad in the Premier League.
The Hammers rectified one of those problems in the summer by signing nine new players.
At a total cost of £155m – £32m of which will come out of this coming summer’s budget.
But somehow Tim Steidten and Julen Lopetegui conspired to turn the second oldest squad into the oldest.
West Ham face another hugely important rebuild
There was huge excitement around the club after last summer’s business.
West Ham failed to live up to expectations, though, enduring a dismal season which cost both Lopetegui and Steidten their jobs.
Graham Potter is now picking up the pieces and making a good fist of things.
He has brought in Kyle Macauley from Chelsea as West Ham’s new head of recruitment.
Only one player arrived in the winter window, 20-year-old striker Evan Ferguson.
Ferguson is a clear marker from Potter and Macauley over the profile of player they want at West Ham.
West Ham on replacing Steidten amid Ashworth links
Potter has always built his teams around young, dynamic players with great potential.
That was evident the moment Macauley walked in the door at the London Stadium mid-January.
Suddenly the Hammers were being linked with some exciting young stars.
There will clearly need to be another rebuild in the summer as Potter looks to make this his team.
Speculation over targets has already started ramping up.
As revealed by Hammers News, West Ham have plans to raise over £100m in sales this summer.
Will Hammers bring in a new technical director?
The pressure will be on to get deals done, though, and now there’s no Steidten around to do them.
For all the criticism levelled at West Ham’s former technical director, he got deals done.
Steidten is clearly a skilled negotiator. That is evident from his time at Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen and with the Hammers.
That leaves majority owner David Sullivan as de facto technical director.
Many fans have raised concerns about that heading into such an important window, where the squad needs to be revamped again.
Now the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners has broken their silence on replacing Steidten.
West Ham wary of rocking a ‘happy ship’
After the German ‘pearl diver’ departed the club, West Ham identified potential Steidten replacements ‘in England and overseas’.
One name reportedly in the club’s thinking is Dan Ashworth – who worked with Potter and Macauley at Brighton.
Telegraph journalist Matt Law revealed last month that Sullivan has been deliberating on whether to appoint a replacement for Steidten.
Football correspondent Graeme Bailey stated Ashworth was a possibility but only if Sullivan took a step back from West Ham’s dealings.
Bailey also revealed Macauley is more involved in talent identification than deal-making.
With targets already being identified by him and Potter, the club has lifted the lid on whether someone will be brought in to actually get deals done.
And it seems West Ham are leaning towards heading into a crucial window with the current structure so as not to ‘rock the boat’.
Although bringing in a Steidten replacement at the end of the season is not being ruled out entirely.
Hammers News put it to the club’s hierarchy whether a direct replacement for Steidten would be hired to do deals or whether the current setup would be maintained.
“We’ll see how we do with what we have,” the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners exclusively told Hammers News.
“Because we are a very happy ship at the moment.”
Some Hammers fans may see that as something of a risk.
Others will point to some of the deals done by the likes of Steidten and other West Ham director of football figures such as Mario Husillos and Gianluca Nani as reason to keep things as they are.
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