West Ham chairman, David Sullivan, has come under fire once more after an appointment at the club which has appeared to significantly set them back.
A few months ago it was thought that Sullivan was about to make another poor decision, and it wouldn’t be the first time that the 76-year-old has seemingly messed things up at the London Stadium.
Not paying the release clause of Ruben Amorim, now at Man United of course, could be considered another in a long line of mistakes from him.
It was suggested that Sullivan wanted Tim Steidten out as soon as possible, after the extent of the German’s failure from his transfer window splurge in the summer became more evident.
David Sullivan blamed for Tim Steidten hire
Injury prone players and others that were clearly not good enough made a recipe for disaster, and a change was clearly needed.
Former Hammers scout, Mick Brown, believes that the chairman needs to shoulder some of the blame for how things turned out, however.
“Steidten should never have been there in the first place,” he said to Football Insider.
“Since then, he’s got rid of two managers and been a pain in the neck for everybody. Two managers banned him from the training ground.
“There was plenty of evidence from before his time at West Ham to suggest he never should’ve set foot there in the first place. I still think questions have to be asked of the chairman over that one.
“But Macauley coming in is going to be a huge boost for Potter because he knows him, he’s worked with him before, and he holds him in high regard.
“It’s not a divisive move like the Steidten one was. The key to these things being successful is having that mutual respect and working relationship between the manager and the head of recruitment.
“Because he has that relationship with Potter, it’s the prefect appointment really. I can only expect it will be a great benefit to West Ham when it comes to incoming transfers.”
David Sullivan will hope ‘perfect’ appointment works
Now that Graham Potter’s former colleague, Kyle Macaulay has joined the staff at the London Stadium, it would seem that things are looking up.
Perhaps the first real test of just how well Macaulay will dovetail with Potter will come with this summer’s transfer window.
It’s self-evident that some players need to be moved on, and there does need to be a handful of incoming signings to balance things out too.
The Hammers can’t afford another summer of huge upheaval, so there’s lots of pressure on Macaulay to get things spot on from the get go.
Sullivan takes all the blame for me. He gets Steidten in as mentioned but far more damaging overulees or vetos all advice on the new head coach and insists on appointing Lopetegui? Why? Was it due dilligence, good research and data analysis? Did he check the personaility git and wmotional intelligence of Lopetegui? Did he f***!!! No main driver or criteria was that Lopetegui was a Will Salthouse client who the Sullivan family have a very close relationship with which is a huge conflict of interest. Add to that Sullivan once again was seduced by a impressive CV with “razzle dazzle” clubs like Real Madrid and Sville and a stont as Spanish national team boss. He claimed it was Prem experience at Wolves that was key. If he had used data, used background checks and done professional due dilligence I suspect he would have seen thru the CV but no his consious bias was too strong. He wanted full control via Salthouse.
Until he has the self awareness and humility to see he fails everytime maling football decisions we are always handicapped. Potter and Macaulay need the budget and autonomy to do their job be fully supported / facilitated by Sullivan. Above all else Sullivan needs to learn to “get the hell out of the way” and not meddle and involving himself hands on inrecruitment. Its called “leadership” not malimg everything about him and massaging the needs of his ego