Former West Ham scout Mick Brown says Kyle Macauley is the “perfect” fit for the club in an interview with Football Insider. 

Mick Brown was a scout at West Ham under David Moyes believes Tim Steidten was the wrong fit for West Ham and that the club has been handed a “huge boost” by replacing the German with Graham Potter’s trusted man Kyle Macauley.

Steidten had a very mixed time in charge of transfers at West Ham, however, the highlights have been completely covered by dark clouds. Whether or not you believe they were Steidten signings or not because of our previous interest, the German was a major part in the signing of Mohammed Kudus who’s value has almost doubled since arriving from Ajax last summer. He also was behind the move that brought Edson Alvarez from Amsterdam to East London in the same window.

However, as a whole it wasn’t great for West Ham under the German, there have been too many signings that just made no sense or haven’t worked out. For example, Konstantinos Mavropanos was completely a Tim Steidten signing and he has failed to impress in a year and a half since joining and he looks set to be frozen out by Graham Potter.

“Steidten should never have been there in the first place,” Mick Brown told Football Insider.

“Since then, he’s got rid of two managers and been a pain in the neck for everybody.”

In fact, both David Moyes and Julen Lopetegui banned the former Leverkusen scout from the training ground at the end of their tenures, suggesting he couldn’t manage a healthy working relationship with either coach. Brown said: “There was plenty of evidence from before his time at West Ham to suggest he never should’ve set foot there in the first place.

“I still think questions have to be asked of the chairman over that one.

“But Macauley coming in is going to be a huge boost for Potter because he knows him, he’s worked with him before, and he holds him in high regard. It’s not a divisive move like the Steidten one was.

“The key to these things being successful is having that mutual respect and working relationship between the manager and the head of recruitment. Because he has that relationship with Potter, it’s the prefect appointment really. I can only expect it will be a great benefit to West Ham when it comes to incoming transfers.”

In their short time at the club so far, Potter and Macauley have already begun to shape the clubs new transfer strategy. They want to make sure they sign the right player, young players and most importantly, players that have room to grow. In previous January transfer windows, West Ham would have taken a chance on someone like Andre Silva. With Michail Antonio and Niclas Fullkrug out long-term and Jarrod Bowen out for Potter’s first few games in charge, we were desperate for a striker.

Silva was available to the club on loan with an option to buy, a deal that would’ve made made complete sense, if he wasn’t any good we wouldn’t have had to buy him. But Potter didn’t want to make a move because he didn’t think he was the right man for the position. The former Brighton manager wanted to bring his former player Evan Ferguson to the club and was willing to take a risk on just a straight loan, without an option to buy to make sure he got the right man for his team.

I think Mick Brown speaks for pretty much the whole of the West Ham fanbase, we are all happy to see the back of Tim Steidten and are excited to see what the future could bring with Graham Potter and Kyle Macauley. If they can bring players like Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Marc Cucurella to the club and be able to keep them longer than Brighton did, we could have a really bright future.