David Moyes has two options at West Ham United, one will lead to sack at London Stadium
David Moyes either needs to accept Tim Steidten’s control over West Ham transfers or face the sack, according to Sean Whetstone.
Steidten joined the Irons in the summer as the East London club’s new technical director.
However, there have been regular rumours about friction between the German transfer chief and manager Moyes, who’d overseen transfers at the London Stadium for quite some time.
Claret & Hugh journalist Whetstone believes Steidten is quickly becoming David Sullivan’s right-hand man when it comes to running the football side of the business and Moyes needs to get on board quickly otherwise he’ll be axed.
Speaking to the Hammers Chat West Ham Forum YouTube channel on Sunday (5 November), Whetstone said: “I said there’s a behind-the-scenes power battle going on and look, this has been building for a little time now.
“There were these rumours of Steidten and Moyes falling out and they were denied by the club at the time. Do you know what? I think a lot of those stories were probably true. We’re now hearing that it wasn’t an easy ride, Steidten was possibly not happy at the beginning and could have ended it.
“We know David Moyes is a stubborn person but there can only be one person in charge of transfers. It’s really difficult to do it by committee. I think Steidten’s proven himself, he’s been trusted, he’s been brought in; Spurs want him, Chelsea wanted him – we got him.
“What I speculated from information from a number of sources, he is fast becoming the number two to David Sullivan and when I say David Sullivan, I say proxy the board because nowadays he has to talk to the board because he’s not the majority shareholder.
“If it comes down to it [between Moyes and Steidten], there will only be one winner and that will be Steidten.
“David Moyes has either got two choices. He either gets with the programme and works with Steidten, or he carries on his stubbornness and his control-freak ways and we’re going to part company.”
Easy decision
Moyes is a West Ham legend. There are no two ways about it.
After winning the Europa Conference League last season, the Scot has etched his name into Hammers folklore and that won’t ever, ever be removed.
However, he needs to roll over a bit here and remember who’s actually in charge at the club.
A lot of fans still don’t like or trust Sullivan – and for good reason.
However, he’s still the main man at the London Stadium and he’s ultimately Moyes’ paymaster so he needs to accept that Steidten knows what he’s doing and can really make a difference at the club.
We saw Moyes waste a lot of money last summer on flops like Gianluca Scamacca, Flynn Downes and Maxwel Cornet.
Moyes has strengths in the transfer market – but it’s not signing players for big money from aboard.
Steidten helped bring in Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse and Mohammed Kudus in his first summer at the Irons so you have to give him credit where it’s due.
In other West Ham United news, the Hammers are waiting in line to sign this Serie A star from Napoli.