5 reasons West Ham should bring in a long term director of football

Managers don’t last very long

The game isn’t what it used to be, and whilst some want to think that it’s partly to do with the board that we’ve had 9 managers since 2001 after having 10 in our first 100 years as a club, it’s really just the way the game is trending. The 2018 future of football survey showed that the average manager lasts just 14 months in the role, and in my opinion, it just isn’t sustainable to have the job of deciding the long term vision of your club changing hands that often.

We’ve already seen over the past few years as Slaven Bilic came in, left, David Moyes came in, left, Pellegrini came in left and then Moyes came back, that the transfer vision doesn’t look the same from one window to the next. There’s no desire to build long term for the club because they’re all concerned with keeping the owners happy with results on the pitch now. So why would you look at bringing in a player who is going to be of benefit in two or three years when you need to improve results now?

The simple fact is that now manager horizons have become shorter and shorter, leaving them to build for the future is just not a good way to do things. You end up with sporadic purchases that don’t work together, one manager’s first choices with the previous manager’s decisions effectively deciding what shape the squad takes. The manager should be someone who fits the club’s, and therefore the director of football’s, long term vision. Someone who will help the club continue towards success, not make a one-season grab at something fleeting. Certainly for a club like West Ham anyway.