West Ham will be furious with Tim Steidten after the sacked technical director made a shocking admission about the signing of Luis Guilherme.
The former transfer chief’s comments have shed new light on the saga involving Brazilian teen Luis Guilherme – and it will anger the Hammers board in more ways than one.
It is fair to say Tim Steidten failed to get things right in his first, only and last window in full control of West Ham’s transfers last summer.
Over £155m was committed to signing nine players, £32m of which kicks in this summer as a result of the obligation to sign Jean-Clair Todibo.
But it is Steidten’s first signing upon taking charge of West Ham’s recruitment that still raises questions and eyebrows one year on.
Excitement was palpable, alongside a fair share of scepticism, when Steidten spent £20m to bring Guilherme to east London from Palmeiras last summer.
Jury still out on Steidten’s first West Ham signing Guilherme
The thinking behind the deal was that Guilherme, a raw teenage talent who had only made 19 appearances in Brazilian football – mostly as a sub – would have a season to bed in before eventually succeeding Mohammed Kudus.
Well Kudus has gone but the jury remains very much out on whether Guilherme is up to that particular task.
Or even whether the 19-year-old will remain at West Ham beyond this summer.
Speculation has swirled since January that West Ham are open to offers to ‘cut their losses’ on Guilherme.
Many supporters have been encouraged by some of Guilherme’s brief cameos since Graham Potter took charge after he barely got a look-in under Julen Lopetegui.
The current Hammers boss seems to rate the pacy star, who was a lot more involved under him in the second half of last season.
Speculation West Ham could sell Guilherme just one year after signing him reignited last week.
Brazilian sources claimed Botafogo have made a bid for Guilherme.
The reports claimed it was ‘likely to be accepted by the Hammers’ but Guilherme is determined to make a success of his move to Europe.
It was claimed a deal remains a possibility with West Ham desperate to raise further funds for Potter’s rebuild.
Now West Ham will be livid after Steidten’s shocking Guilherme gamble admission – and in more ways than one.
West Ham will be livid after Steidten’s shock Guilherme admission
Hammers fans are divided over Guilherme.
Some feel Steidten has dropped a clanger at £20m and the club must recoup what they can as soon as possible.
Others want to see Guilherme given a proper chance.
It has been noted that if the 19-year-old had put in some of his cameos as a Hammers academy graduate the whole Premier League would be raving about him, let alone West Ham fans.
But when he was dismissed ahead of the January window, it was reported that the Guilherme deal was a big factor in David Sullivan deciding to sack Steidten.
Speaking in a lengthy new interview, though, Steidten appears to have held his hands up that Guilherme was a gamble that hasn’t paid off, saying ‘mistakes are part of life’.
Steidten says Guilherme has talent but it was clear from his first training session he needed a long time before having a chance of being anywhere near the levels required.
And he admits that time may never come, saying every transfer involving a young player is a gamble – conceding quick decisions then have to be made on whether to cut losses on a signing.
In doing so the German has effectively admitted he got the signing wrong while simultaneously potentially hurting West Ham’s chances of selling him on this summer.
“In my experience, you notice it pretty quickly (whether a young player is good enough),” Steidten told transfermarkt.
“After one of Florian Wirtz’s training sessions, coach Peter Bosz said , ‘Guys, I’m not letting him go back down (to the youth side), he needs to train up there.’ It was clear to everyone involved that he didn’t need any more time and had to join the professionals, even if no one could have known that he would become so good.
Steidten admits £20m Guilherme ‘mistake’ is ‘part of life’
“I brought the Brazilian Luis Guilherme to West Ham when he was 18. At the first training session, everyone saw what talent he had, but that he still needed a lot of time to learn the things that Florian Wirtz could already do intuitively.
“But situations also arise where you see that it might be more difficult than we had hoped. Then you have to make quick decisions. The hardest task, of course, is always admitting to yourself that you may have been wrong in your assessment.
“Then you have to be very self-critical, but mistakes are part of life. On and off the pitch.”
Steidten won’t need to be too self-critical, because he will have plenty of Hammers fans – and majority owner Sullivan – queueing up to do that for him.
West Ham’s board recently stated Sullivan feels he is a better judge of players than the likes of Steidten when confirming he will not be directly replaced.
Potter and Kyle Macaulay have also made a young star their first signing at around £20m in the shape of El Hadji Malick Diouf.
The hope is that he is better equipped to hit the ground running than Guilherme, whose future remains unclear.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
