Steidten Out

[Massive Attack]

I want this costly clueless conniving cսnt gone. We have suffered persistent injuries to expensive key signings this season, as well as others who just don't cut it against Premier League opposition, or have suspect temperaments/injury records previously known and they're all his picks. He clearly doesn't do his due diligence well enough as one of the stories of the season has been us suffering injuries to key new signings..

Fullkrug £27M - Suspect Injury History 

Todibo £34M (if avoid relegation) - Suspect Injury History/Suspect attitude problems at Barcelona 

Mavropanos £19M - Just utter dogshit (and ironically probably now out injured as well due to concussion for 10 days like Fabianski)

Alvarez £35M - Nowhere near good enough for the money we spent on him looking lost and slow as arseholes against Premier League opposition 

Kudus is just about the only costly signing that's come off that's genuine quality, although even he now has suspect temperament issues when getting himself a 5 match ban for fighting an entire Spurs Team in front of everyone. So fuck knows what he's also like behind the scenes..

Just sick of the persistent injuries to key players that has derailed our season and continues to do so on tonights evidence with Fullcrock, as well as all the unsettling bollocks behind the scenes. There's no smoke without fire and I now make that not 1 but 2 Managers in quick succession that allegedly told him to stay away from the Training Ground. It makes me wonder whether he is our Club Mole all along who has persistently leaked things out to the Media from either within the Dressing Room/Snaps with managers behind another managers back that then coincidentally get leaked at just the right time? A manager who was humiliated in the media for taking at least 2 Training sessions and possibly a 3rd on the last day he eventually got sacked and the whole thing was handled terribly which again points to Steidten and his breakdown in his 2nd relationship with a manager. And he's supposed to work with them, not against them!

On the radio yesterday when discussing Steidten someone mentioned how odd they thought it was to see him down by the players tunnel/dressing room area as well as doing interviews with TNT during the Chelsea loss earlier in the season and they thought good Technical Directors aren't seen front and centre as much as this one always appears to be. He's certainly got an impressive holiday snap collection he leaks to the media as soon as he takes them. 

The longer this season has panned out the more and more I've thought something just doesn't sit right at the Club and I genuinely think he has been at the heart of a lot of our issues. I suppose that's why it's now been known his position is under review and they're already on to him, hence why Potter swerved the Steidten question possibly knowing something we don't about him. 

Or does anyone still believe he's the right man to guide our Club making such big decisions within it?

 

[Sir Alf]

No one with intelligence and the courage of their convictions ( independent thinker ) can be successful under a narcissistic, egomaniac like Sullivan.

I want Potter to be here a while, build something that can be sustained but realistically see it as impossible while Sullivan controls everything.  

[El Scorchio]

As to the future, it may be naive of me but I have to take some comfort from the fact that we have appointed Macaulay who, in turn, must have impressed enough to have been the only member of Potter's staff at Chelsea who wasn't thrown out with him. 

Well, he wasn't the only one. The goalkeeping coach Potter brought in from Brighton is still there. 

As for Macauley impressing, he got shuffled over from recruitment to analysis after Potter left, so it's hard to judge, especially as when he was in recruitment there were several people above him, including Winstanley his previous boss at Brighton. Only signing I've heard that he was apparently the main instigator of was that of David Fofana, a £10m+ signing who's failed to set the world alight so far, but still only 22.

When he brought him to Chelsea, Potter apparently saw his use mainly as a conduit between himself and senior management. "He is a good link between the coach and the club in terms of recruitment. In terms of the hours and depths of conversations you have to have around recruitment, it's easier to have with Kyle than with me. I'm on the pitch working with the players." I expect him to perform the same function here, basically being Potter's mouthpiece to explain to the board why he wants this or that player.

Apart from that I'm sure he's decent on the data analysis side of things, which can't be a bad thing.

I give it two windows until people start turning on him for not having signed the next Van dijk, Rodri and Haaland already. 

[Jean-Luc Paul Goddard]

As to the future, it may be naive of me but I have to take some comfort from the fact that we have appointed Macaulay who, in turn, must have impressed enough to have been the only member of Potter's staff at Chelsea who wasn't thrown out with him. 

Well, he wasn't the only one. The goalkeeping coach Potter brought in from Brighton is still there. 

As for Macauley impressing, he got shuffled over from recruitment to analysis after Potter left, so it's hard to judge, especially as when he was in recruitment there were several people above him, including Winstanley his previous boss at Brighton. Only signing I've heard that he was apparently the main instigator of was that of David Fofana, a £10m+ signing who's failed to set the world alight so far, but still only 22.

When he brought him to Chelsea, Potter apparently saw his use mainly as a conduit between himself and senior management. "He is a good link between the coach and the club in terms of recruitment. In terms of the hours and depths of conversations you have to have around recruitment, it's easier to have with Kyle than with me. I'm on the pitch working with the players." I expect him to perform the same function here, basically being Potter's mouthpiece to explain to the board why he wants this or that player.

Apart from that I'm sure he's decent on the data analysis side of things, which can't be a bad thing.

[honky cat]

Of all the players that are supposedly his signings, the only one I have doubts over is fulkrug, prob overpaid due to age. If he'd had a full preseason and started from game one it might have been a different story. Who knows? But then the idiot jlop was around.

Alvarez, Mavro can prob be sold for close to what we paid if they don't improve under potter. Todibo is a loan anyway? 
​​Kudus will sell at a decent profit. Guilherme needs to be loaned out this month if there's still time.
​​​​​
​​​​Maybe there is nothing strange or sinister with steidten, he became high profile because some of our fans put him there. Potter wants his own people around him  - McCauley, so maybe it's all just reached it's natural end.

[GBHammer63]

It’s impossible to tell whether Steidten was any good or not when he’s working under Sullivans dictatorship. Calling him out for being shit is letting Sullivan off the hook.

Im not saying he’s been good, but has certainly been made to look worse by doing as Sullivan tells him. Ultimately it’s not Steidten who was at fault for not getting the Duran deal done it was Sullivan who couldn’t even sign a player who was giving us the hammers and alienating his own club.

Mavro is a liability, but only Sullivan truly knows who was behind that deal. Guilherme was always for the future and hasn’t been getting minutes but Sullivan sanctioned it. Sullivan wanted a shit manager who players couldn’t take notice of or understand.

Whether Steidten was good or bad, he got signings done.

[onsideman]

People see these things too much in black and white. Steidten was never the hero some people made him out to be in his first year here. Nor is he the pantomime villain that the idiots and Sullivan cronies are painting him as either. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.

The best thing about his appointment was not him as an individual (personally I thought he was a bit underqualified and all that pearl diver shit was nonsense) but that the club seemed to finally be moving into the 21st century, away from knee jerk appointments and Sully specials and maybe looking toward long term succession planning (for players and coaching staff). Of course, he never really had much control anyway as it turned out, but surely things are only going to get worse as we've gone full blown back to the old system and that isn't something to celebrate.

I'm not suggesting he is/was a pantomime villain, just not very good, so of course I agree that he was never the hero that some made out.

As to the future, it may be naive of me but I have to take some comfort from the fact that we have appointed Macaulay who, in turn, must have impressed enough to have been the only member of Potter's staff at Chelsea who wasn't thrown out with him. 

And yes, I do realise that their roles aren't exactly the same - however, if Sullivan is signing off on the deals anyway, perhaps we are better off having someone who can identify the targets and a manager who is articulate enough to sell them the dream?

[Jean-Luc Paul Goddard]

People see these things too much in black and white. Steidten was never the hero some people made him out to be in his first year here. Nor is he the pantomime villain that the idiots and Sullivan cronies are painting him as either. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.

The best thing about his appointment was not him as an individual (personally I thought he was a bit underqualified and all that pearl diver shit was nonsense) but that the club seemed to finally be moving into the 21st century, away from knee jerk appointments and Sully specials and maybe looking toward long term succession planning (for players and coaching staff). Of course, he never really had much control anyway as it turned out, but surely things are only going to get worse as we've gone full blown back to the old system and that isn't something to celebrate.

[El Scorchio]

Don't come to my conclusions based on mouthpieces, it's been made clear on SSN he was told to stay away from 2 managers and I've seen what he has brought to the Club and how he's gone about spending a lot of that money badly. Can't speak for others if they hang on these talking heads every word. I much prefer the days of yesteryear when none of the attention seeking divs were heard of. More fool those that lap up everything they say. 

I’m not. That’s the whole point of what I’m saying.
Most of the Bile felt toward all three of them by any of us was propagated by Sullivan. Again ‘told to keep away from two managers’ is simplifying the situation. Obviously he was employed to basically find Moyes successor as well as new players not aligned with Moyes philosophy so Moyes would have obviously banned any person in that position. That’s nothing to do with TS as a person at all. Thanks to Sullivan TS and Lop were never going to see eye to eye and with Sullivan telling TS to find his replacement he was always going to be banned again. I don’t blame either Lop or TS for that. Again that’s a reflection on his position and what he was tasked with doing rather than him as a person. Drop anyone in that role and and they’d have been banned from the training ground by both managers. 

I don’t believe any of the three were as bad as they’ve been made out to be. All of them have something in common that Sullivan put all of them in situations where it was almost impossible to do their jobs to the best of their ability without interference or a culture clash between them. I reckon Sullivan RELISHED that for some fucking twisted reason. All of them will do better in their next roles.

[Massive Attack]

Don't come to my conclusions based on mouthpieces, it's been made clear on SSN he was told to stay away from 2 managers and I've seen what he has brought to the Club and how he's gone about spending a lot of that money badly. Can't speak for others if they hang on these talking heads every word. I much prefer the days of yesteryear when none of the attention seeking divs were heard of. More fool those that lap up everything they say. 

[Jean-Luc Paul Goddard]

He worked under sports director Simon Rolfes at Leverkusen and left there pretty sharpish due to "mutual consent" although not sure why.  Seems to possibly have a habit of either not getting on with managers or others in high positions or falling out with them.  All a bit strange considering his appointment was considered quite a coup at the time.

What happened was that Leverkusen had an MD for Sport (Rudi Voller) and a Director of Football (Simon Rolfes). When Voller left, Rolfes took the MD job but rather than promote Steidten he also retained his previous role as well. This made Steidten start looking for jobs elsewhere. When it became known that he'd had talks with Chelsea, Leverkusen immediately put him on gardening leave as they didn't want him passing on info to his new club.

[El Scorchio]

Who's shifting blame away from Sullivan? Everyone to a man, woman and child that follows this Club pretty much wants him gone (a decade ago) and that won't ever change. He's to blame for all our ills. That doesn't mean others that work for the Club cannot also be blamed when they fuck up which Steidten has with recruitment, just as Lopetegui did failing to implement his ideas quick enough. It's not an exclusive thing where only 1 person is to blame but calling Steidten out for how he's got on at the Club over the course of 2 seasons showing little progress is more than fair. He has seriously made a dogs dinner of our Squad make-up since he arrival and he's spent a pretty penny to achieve it too. 

Steidten out, Sullivan out, Brady out, we need to clear the decks completely if I had it my way to progress and why I want Kretinsky to start thinking seriously about whether he wants to finally get rid of our cancer within our Club once or for all, or let's hear from others willing to take us over. I'm sick and tired of too many cooks at the Club spoiling it for the fans. 1 half decent new Owner is the answer to that and it's long overdue Sullivan was kicked out the Club too.

Sullivan is shifting the blame away from Sullivan. That’s the whole point and that’s his game with every scapegoat he’s made at the club since he’s been here. It’s absolute bread and circuses. 

I clearly said that doesn’t excuse individual failures, but Sullivan spreading his poison in the media through his mouthpieces to vilify his own staff whom he employed and distance himself from them time and time again is merely a distraction to preoccupy minds. He’s spread shit about all the past personnel and It’ll happen to Potter and Macaulay next and round and round it’ll go again until we are finally free of him. 

[Massive Attack]

Who's shifting blame away from Sullivan? Everyone to a man, woman and child that follows this Club pretty much wants him gone (a decade ago) and that won't ever change. He's to blame for all our ills. That doesn't mean others that work for the Club cannot also be blamed when they fuck up which Steidten has with recruitment, just as Lopetegui did failing to implement his ideas quickly and coherently enough. It's not an exclusive thing where only 1 person is to blame but calling Steidten out for how he's got on at the Club over the course of 2 seasons showing little progress is more than fair. He has seriously made a dogs dinner of our Squad make-up since his arrival and he's spent a pretty penny to achieve it too. 

Steidten out, Sullivan out, Brady out, we need to clear the decks completely if I had it my way to progress and why I want Kretinsky to start thinking seriously about whether he wants to finally get rid of our cancer within our Club once or for all, or let's hear from others willing to take us over. I'm sick and tired of too many cooks at the Club spoiling it for the fans. 1 half decent new Owner is the answer to that and it's long overdue Sullivan/Brady was kicked out the Club as well.

[El Scorchio]

I think we can all agree TS was a mixed bag but vilifying him for our failures is pointless and wrong. He was only a limb. As was Newman and Moyes and Lop and as is potter and as is Macaulay. Not to say any would have led us to the promised land by any means but all would have and would be able to do their jobs at least a little more successfully were it not for something bigger manipulating all the limbs

The club is rotten from the head down. Sullivan can cut off as many limbs and regrow them as suits him to try and shift blame and hide behind the failures he set them all up for time and again, but most people see through it. The problems will never be fixed until he’s gone. it’s just a matter of time before he turns on Potter and Macaulay and starts spreading bile in the media, whether results don’t turn around, whether one player they insist on having doesn’t perform, or whether they do a single thing behind the scenes which displeases him, or probably if they just ‘get over’ with the fans leaving himself as the main target with no one to hide behind. I’m sure that last one partly did for Bilic. Cant have anyone getting too popular and taking any shine for success away from him. It does him a favour if the manager or technical director or certain players are the ones attracting our ire. 

[pdcwhu]

This man "was" a Genius 

[onsideman]

So many misinformed people on forums and with their own channels still refer to Steidten as a Director of Football. He simply wasnt. Had no autonomy, budget or purchase limit sign off authority. He was called a Technical Director. It was a hybrid role involving scouting/ player identification using the small, only recently established analyst dept and getting deals for players brokered or “over the line” with agent and player negotiations. Sullivan retained control as he always has but less “hands on”.

Set up for a fall by Sullivan if things went south which they did. Steidten’s mate in Germany said only 2 players ( ( Kudus and Todibo ) were his first choice picks, players he thought were very good value in terms of their quality. He would have had some others identified on lists of options but some players also came via Salthouse and Sullivan and Lopetegui made it known he wanted Soler, Rodders and Kilman. 

But some hard of thinking fans are buying into the narrative the media ate pushing that the summer window was all Steidtens fault. The media are being fed / manipulated by Sullivan.

When will people wake up. Steidten may have not worked out longer term but you dont scape goat a bloke after one window and a bloke who was just part of the recruitment process and had limited power and influence.



 

 

 

But you're similarly buying into a narrative, albeit a different one. 

I'm sure that if he had brought in Wharton or Rogers or or Delap or Gitttens, for example, everyone would have a very different view. Stubbo now claims he had nothing to do with Mavropanos yet he was, at that time, active in the market from which he came so *must* have given his opinion,  and despite the fact he was in demand and apparently highly regarded, Todibo had been let go twice and is a very, very long way from the defender we needed. At £35m.

...and this totally impotent role still enabled him to employ staff such as Hahn and his brother.

... and he had 3 windows (excluding this one) not one

[zico]

He worked under sports director Simon Rolfes at Leverkusen and left there pretty sharpish due to "mutual consent" although not sure why.  Seems to possibly have a habit of either not getting on with managers or others in high positions or falling out with them.  All a bit strange considering his appointment was considered quite a coup at the time.

[Massive Attack]

How about framing it another way..

Would people rather keep Steidten in post, or prefer Macauley now Head of Recruitment? 

[Lee Trundle]

Whatever his job title was, it does seem like it was a promotion from his previous role at Leverkusen.

And for him to get banned by BOTH previous managers, might mean he was a bit classless in the way he went about things.

[Sir Alf]

So many misinformed people on forums and with their own channels still refer to Steidten as a Director of Football. He simply wasnt. Had no autonomy, budget or purchase limit sign off authority. He was called a Technical Director. It was a hybrid role involving scouting/ player identification using the small, only recently established analyst dept and getting deals for players brokered or “over the line” with agent and player negotiations. Sullivan retained control as he always has but less “hands on”.

Set up for a fall by Sullivan if things went south which they did. Steidten’s mate in Germany said only 2 players ( ( Kudus and Todibo ) were his first choice picks, players he thought were very good value in terms of their quality. He would have had some others identified on lists of options but some players also came via Salthouse and Sullivan and Lopetegui made it known he wanted Soler, Rodders and Kilman. 

But some hard of thinking fans are buying into the narrative the media ate pushing that the summer window was all Steidtens fault. The media are being fed / manipulated by Sullivan.

When will people wake up. Steidten may have not worked out longer term but you dont scape goat a bloke after one window and a bloke who was just part of the recruitment process and had limited power and influence.

 

[factory seconds]

Fucking hell, yeah alright mate. Steitden's been doing great work for us by spending the money wisely and wasn't an issue for 2 (not 1) consecutive managers wanting him banned from the Training Ground.
 

he was banned because he was "going behind their back" by seeking replacements for the piss poor jobs they were doing.

that search was of course sanctioned by the owners, but neither moyes nor lopetegui had the stomach for fight so they lashed out at the castrato of a DoF who at any other club would've had full power to sack them on the spot.

[Mad Dog]

Ironically if have preferred it if the last 2 managers had been banned from thr training ground

[Massive Attack]

Fucking hell, yeah alright mate. Steitden's been doing great work for us by spending the money wisely and wasn't an issue for 2 (not 1) consecutive managers wanting him banned from the Training Ground.

[Russ of the BML]

I find it astonishing that anyone who claims to have more than two brain cell's can twist this to be the fault of Tim. 

I don't need to go into the intricate details but he was brought in by Sullivan and then immediately disabled by the fact that Sullivan could not control Moyes ego. Then he warns against Lopetegui but has him dumped on him. Now he's got Sullivan rounding on him. It's a fucking shit show. He is better off at a proper club. God help the cսnt that replaces him. 

It's just fucking tragic. And you have people like Massive who have just spent the last six weeks trying to convince himself and others that Lope was a good coach and now doing all he can to pass the buck to Tim. I think Massive is Sullivan posting under a different name. 

[Massive Attack]

What the fuck are you on about, Stubbs? 

It's only an opinion on a Football Forum and all I've said is I thought it was wrong going for him at the price we paid, it aint any deeper than that. Contact the Club...

[stubbo]

I wasn't guessing, I checked out his injury history at the time to double check as I knew he had a past of injuries and wondered just how bad it was and it didn't read well to me. When I coupled that knowledge with his age I wanted us to fuck the idea right off paying £27M+ for him. 

Duran I was fully on board for but definitely not the carthorse and been consistent with that all season long how stupid the Club could be to make such a bad gamble, especially as Sullvian has a long track record of bringing in expensive sixknote Strikers. I couldn't believe he agreed to sign it off but really as I shouldn't as his decision making can be so awful at times.

By definition you were guessing, because you can't predict the future. Educated guess maybe, but a guess. If you KNEW why didn't you go tell the club. 

If you can see the future where player signings are concerned then I implore you to approach the club and be a key due diligence part of our future transfer singings.

Like I say. His RECENT career history (over some seasons) was not bad. He was a risk. But he has shown if he's fit he'll score goals in the Premier League. But we've been a little unlucky.

Dont forget the club conduct medicals, undertaken by medical professionals, which will include checking the status and healing of previous injuries. They report to the club who then make the call on it. What was the outcome of that detailed, up to date, medical report?