David Sullivan has for years been vocal of his goal of catapulting West Ham to the ‘next level’, however, his actions have yet to show that desire. In my mind there is no doubt that Sullivan truly means those words, his ultimate goal is almost certainly to have a football team playing regularly in the Champions League, be it as a fan or as a businessman.
It is no secret that to reach a higher level in football, better players are required, this is not necessarily to say that a bigger outlay is required, but perhaps a smarter recruitment strategy, one, that I believe, doesn’t involve David Sullivan overseeing it. It is my belief that Sullivan’s ego and desire to placate both the manager and support are holding the club back, and that for the club to truly make use of the exorbitant rise in income over the coming years, a Director of Football is required, with a recruitment system modelled on those of continental clubs’ such as Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund or RB Leipzig.
There is no doubt that as we stand the club will find it difficult to attract an elite calibre of player, with the pursuits of Alexandre Lacazette and Michy Batshuayi in the summer transfer window prime examples, meaning that we need to be more cunning in the way that we recruit players.
With the recruiting of a Director of Football, the club could have a long term plan and profile of player recruitment, that could not only eventually save the club a fortune in overpaying for failed transfers, but also preserve the reputation of the board amongst fans and the press, which I’m sure features highly on Sullivan’s list of priorities. A Director of Football give the club a long-term structure with regards to not only transfers but could also implement a structure so that when Slav eventually leaves we have a clear club ethos and style of play, with which to hire the next manager around.
It is no coincidence that arguably the best-run club in the country, Southampton, have a Director of Football, allowing them to seamlessly replace not only players but also managers, whilst also generating a substantial profit from player sales year on year, allowing for significant financial growth, generating the third highest pre-tax profit in the country behind Manchester United and Tottenham in the 2014-15 season.
In an ideal world we pluck Michael Zorc and Sven Mislintat from Borussia Dortmund, Ralf Rangnick from the high-flying, young guns RB Leipzig or Monchi and his global network of scouts from Sevilla, but none of these is a truly viable strategy, as they’ll undoubtedly have better offers, meaning that, in my eyes, we have two options: give Tony Henry more influence or place a greater emphasis on the role of analytics in the club.
At the end of the 2013/14 season, unhappy with what he perceived to be a lack of value for money in the squad, Sullivan poached Tony Henry from Everton and hired him as chief scout, and this decision bore fruit almost immediately with the purchases of Cheikhou Kouyate, Aaron Cresswell and Diafra Sakho playing a crucial role in a frankly superb first half of the season, in which we found ourselves sitting in the top four at Christmas.
This positive trend of recruitment continued after the end of the 2014/15 season, with not only the obvious successes of Manu Lanzini and Dimitri Payet but also players such as Pedro Obiang and Michail Antonio, both of which were almost certainly Henry signings. Even in the abomination that was the 2015/16 summer window the few bright spots can be linked back to Henry, with the signings of Arthur Masuaku, Sophiane Feghouli and Havard Nordtveit (who is yet to receive significant playing time in his preferred midfield role).
The other option is to further invest in the club’s analytics department, headed by Rory Campbell, more and more clubs in the lower reaches of English football are beginning to realise the value of utilising analytics when recruiting, with as recently as December, Swansea revealed the influence of once noted statistical pundit, Daniel Altman, though the results remain to be seen. Amongst other clubs having used analytics in order to gain an advantage are Fulham, currently sitting five points outside the play-off spots in the championship and Brentford, who were promoted from League One on a shoestring budget following smart recruitment, and whose most noted statistical signings, Andre Gray and Moses Odubajo, are now plying their trade in the premier league.
Therefore the solution may be directly under our noses; give Tony Henry more influence when it comes to transfers; make better use of the club’s analytics department, removing the ego from what should be a scientific process, or ideally, do both! As it stands our financial superiority alone won’t take us to the next level, it’ll be taking advantage of any margin of sporting intelligence, no matter how minute. If we can’t be more attractive, we have to be smarter
