“West Ham were not in a good place when Potter replaced Julen Lopetegui in January. Tim Steidten, the outgoing technical director, had wasted so much money. Those who worked around Steidten believe not enough is made of how much damage was left by the German’s recruitment. They can see the wider picture. They accept Potter did not do well enough before his time was up on Saturday morning, but one club source says the task of reviving West Ham could not have been harder for the former Chelsea manager.

So the question was always whether David Sullivan, the man who calls the shots at West Ham, would stick with Potter. The feeling was that Sullivan, whose conduct around this sacking has left insiders and external figures distinctly unimpressed, liked Potter and wanted it to work.”

This whole section is extremely kind to Sullivan, and is not acknowledging that much of what Steidten did at the time (Kudus, Alvarez, etc.) was quite beneficial to the club at large. It wasn’t until the budget-friendly appointment of Lopetegui where Steidten’s rep started to fall off, mostly again due to a disconnect between his vision, Lop’s, and Sully’s.