West Ham United are set to re-jig their recruitment structure.
West Ham United manager David Moyes has told The Guardian that co-chairman David Sullivan will be standing aside on the transfer front in order to try and improve the club’s recruitment.
The Hammers picked up another win under Moyes on Saturday afternoon, beating Watford 2-0 at the London Stadium thanks to goals from Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic, meaning West Ham now sit 12th in the Premier League table, five points clear of relegation.
Moyes is on course to keep West Ham in the Premier League, which would give the Scot a superb chance of landing the job beyond the end of the season – and he already appears to be planning for that eventuality.
The January transfer window only just closed, with West Ham bringing in Joao Mario and Jordan Hugill before also landing Patrice Evra on a free transfer last week, but it seems that Moyes already has plans for the summer.
Moyes has told The Guardian that West Ham are already thinking about their summer plans, and they intend to change their recruitment strategy, starting with co-chairman David Sullivan stepping back.
Moyes noted that, whilst Sullivan has helped bring the likes of Manuel Lanzini and Marko Arnautovic to East London, ‘right’ decisions need to be made in the transfer market, and Sullivan won’t have as much of an influence anymore.
“Hopefully we’ll find ways of churning it back out and trying to make decisions which are right,” said Moyes. “They have signed an awful lot of good players here, a lot of good players – Manuel Lanzini, Marko Arnautovic – so there’s no criticism, but we’re going to set up something that hopefully gives us another look. It’s going to come a little bit away from the chairman. The chairman is going to try to stand aside a bit from it,” he added.
Moyes is right to point out that Sullivan oversaw some impressive deals, such as those for Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio and since-departed Dimitri Payet, on top of Lanzini and Arnautovic, but West Ham’s transfer strategy has been scattergun at best lately.
Deals for ‘proven’ players such as Jose Fonte, Robert Snodgrass and Joe Hart have failed to reap rewards, whilst the likes of Havard Nordtveit, Gokhan Tore, Sofiane Feghouli, Jonathan Calleri and Simone Zaza sum up just why it’s time for Sullivan to relinquish some control over signings, possibly handing Moyes the reins in the transfer market – and that’s something West Ham fans have been pleading for in recent months.
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