He will lose the ‘power war’ to him at West Ham United as a transfer’showdown’ looms.
David Moyes can’t win the “power battle” at West Ham against technical director Tim Stiedten as a “showdown” could be on the cards, according to the editor of Six Foot Two.
The Hammers-focused writer reported via Twitter on 4 November that the German has “quickly installed himself” as second in command to David Sullivan on footballing matters, and has even left club-legend Mark Noble “in the shade”.
The club are said to be “delighted” with Steidten after the signings of Mohammed Kudus, Konstantinos Mavropanos, and Edson Alvarez in the summer, and he is set to be in charge of transfers going forward, leaving Moyes to find agreement with him or come off second best in a struggle behind the scenes.
The Six Foot Two editor wrote: “Behind the scenes, there is a battle for power at West Ham, but there will be only one winner when push comes to shove. That power battle is between the manager, David Moyes, and the new technical director, Tim Steidten, and it is really a case of winner takes it all.
“Steidten has been publicly and privately credited for the signings of Kudus, Alvarez and Mavropanos, and the board is delighted with his start to his new role. He has quickly installed himself as the number two to David Sullivan in all footballing matters, leaving Mark Noble slightly in the shade to deal with Academy matters.
“Steidten will draw up the short list of the next manager, whenever that might be, and the relationship between the manager and the technical director will be a crucial one, whoever is the head coach.
“Moyes will need to work closely with Steidten come December in advance of the January transfer window; if he does not, we could find ourselves in a showdown come Christmas time over transfer strategy.
“If it comes to that, over the festive period, there will be only one winner, and it will not be David Moyes, so the big question remains whether the current manager can be open-minded to other ideas and share the power of the footballing side of the Hammers.”
Inevitable
Midway through the summer transfer window when West Ham had failed to sign a single target weeks after agreeing the sale of Declan Rice it was starting to look like one of both of the two key men would have to go.
In the end the two appeared to find an accord and the late-window signings strengthened the squad pretty well, before an excellent start to the season suggested the turmoil of weeks earlier had been bypassed.
But now, with the Premier League form regressing rapidly, Moyes’ job looks set to come under pressure once more so if the hierarchy are happy with Steidten’s work he is clearly the one with the better prospects at the London Stadium.
Nobody can deny the impact that the Scot has had on West Ham over the past few seasons, and the Europa Conference League triumph has secured his place in the club’s history.
But it looks like the same old issues are coming to the fore once more, including a conservative style of play and debatable team selections, particularly with regards to new signings.
Having come close to losing his job last season, and with his expiring contract not currently in line for an extension, it seems like this only ends one way.
That said, it felt like that in the final weeks of last season and he went an lifted a European trophy so perhaps he can defy expectations again.
In other West Ham news, Steidten appears to have been busy already as the club have “set their sights” on a very popular target ahead of the winter windo
