There is plenty of blame to go around in east London as summer signings struggle in a team that lacks identity

Dysfunction at West Ham is nothing new. The frustration, though, is that bringing in a technical director was supposed to improve recruitment. Expectations were high when Tim Steidten was appointed shortly after West Ham’s triumph in the Europa Conference League final in June 2023.

Soon it was common to see triumphant images of a beaming Steidten sitting on a private jet with expensive new signings, a trend that would earn the apparent recruitment guru much acclaim on social media, where large accounts were more than happy to talk up the German’s work. Why such behaviour was necessary, though, was never entirely clear. Ultimately, the work speaks for itself and, as West Ham have found during a disastrous start to the season, nothing delivers a verdict on transfer business more eloquently than results.