West Ham United director of football Tim Steidten may well be cooking up something incredibly exciting this summer.
Tim Steidten arrived at West Ham in July 2023, and proceeded to help facilitate the signings of Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
This summer, he has played key roles in signing Luis Guilherme and Max Kilman for the Hammers, as well as spending time out in Brazil helping Lucas Paqueta get through his current situation.
Steidten has far more power to do his job now that Julen Lopetegui has replaced David Moyes, and the German actually took a swipe at the Scot during a recent press conference.
The 45-year-old is working tirelessly alongside Lopetegui to get the West Ham squad up to scratch heading into the 2024/25 campaign.
If the Hammers are to be competitive next season in all fronts, the German and the Spaniard need to bring in at least four or five more high quality signings this summer.
One of those needs to be another centre-back – someone who can forge a really strong partnership with Kilman.
And there is a Premier League deal that’s apparently very close to completion that should give the Hammers fans great hope that we’re on the verge of another huge signing.
Tim Steidten must have exciting West Ham transfer lined up
I think the German must be cooking something seriously exciting in the London Stadium kitchen.
And strangely, that’s because another Premier League side are about to seal a really impressive deal.
Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Nottingham Forest are very close to signing Nikola Milenkovic from Fiorentina for just £12 million this summer.
The 26-year-old Serbian is someone who has been on the West Ham radar for years now – since the summer of 2020 in fact when we made a £23 million bid for him.
The Hammers were linked again with him just a few days ago, but now he seems set for a move to Forest.
Back in 2018, ESPN described the Fiorentina star as ‘unstoppable’, and I personally think he’d have been perfect for West Ham.
In 34 Serie A appearances for Fiorentina last term, the 24-year-old averaged 1.2 tackles, 0.8 interceptions and 2.6 clearances per match. He also won an average of 3.3 aerial duels per game (Who Scored).
He’s quite clearly a top-class defender, so why have the Hammers allowed Forest to sign him unchallenged?
What is Steidten cooking
The Hammers DOF must have a special player lined up, otherwise failing to sign Milenkovic makes zero sense to me.
Jean-Clair Todibo anyone? West Ham are said to have a strong interest in signing the 24-year-old.
After the performance of Konstantinos Mavropanos during our friendly clash with Ferencvaros on Monday, I wouldn’t be surprised one little bit if Tim Steidten is eyeing up another elite central defender for West Ham this summer.
The Greek defender is being linked with a move to Juventus as well after all.
I would love Todibo at the London Stadium. The Nice star is an elite centre-back, and he’d take us to a whole new level defensively.
Kilman lined up alongside Todibo would give the Hammers one of the very best central defensive partnerships in the Premier League.
He has really impressed for the Ligue 1 outfit since joining them from Barcelona three years ago.
The 24-year-old is incredibly strong in the air, possesses impressive pace for such a big man and he reads the game superbly well.
Todibo is definitely ready to make the jump up from Ligue 1 to the Premier League, and he should be perfectly suited to England’s top tier.
The fact that West Ham have seemingly allowed Nottingham Forest a free run at signing Nikola Milenkovic proves to me that Tim Steidten must have an even better centre-back signing lined up.
Let’s just hope that player is Jean-Clair Todibo!
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