Former West Ham United technical director Tim Steidten did himself few favours with his glass-half-full assessment of Niclas Fullkrug’s underwhelming Premier League spell a few months ago.
The Hammers, he would reveal, actually paid around £19 million for the Germany international. Far less than the fee reported in the media. That, though, feels like a small mercy considering the bigger picture.
Eleven Premier League starts and three goals hardly represents a return on that investment.
“For me, he was still too cheap!” Steidten protested, claiming that West Ham had pulled off a Fullkrug-shaped bargain in the summer of 2024.
“Niclas wasn’t just the type of player I was looking for on the pitch, but also someone who could lead the team off it. I would have paid even more if it had been my own money!”
Now, as Fullkrug faces another spell out injured with a thigh tear, the West Ham United bosses presumably wish the 32-year-old had indeed come out of Steidten’s own pocket.
Rather than burnish his reputation in East London – history is unlikely to look too kindly on the Steidten era – the former Bayer Leverkusen talentstopper damaged it further with his refusal to consider the Fullkrug deal, one he pushed so hard for, as anything other than an expensive misstep.
Just to add insult to Fullkrug’s latest injury, Steidten would then go on to reel off a list of names West Ham could have signed, but didn’t, during his two-year tenure between 2023 and 2025.
And considering his ‘enormous potential’, and the glowing praise of one Erling Haaland, RB Leipzig’s Norwegian whizzkid Antonio Nusa would surely have been a better use of the Hammers’ resources.
Tim Steidten was keen on signing Norway star Antonio Nusa for West Ham United
Almost exactly one year after Haaland sung the praises of a teenage winger with ‘exceptional’ talent, Nusa seized the chance to show the Manchester City superstar just how much his game has developed over the previous 12 months.
His performances during the October international break were not quite as spectacular as that come-of-age display against Italy back in June.
While El Hadji Malick Diouf paved the way for his eventual West Ham switch with an outstanding defensive display up against Bukayo Saka a few months back, Nusa assisted Alexander Sorloth’s opener and then blasted in a stunning solo effort of his own during a first-half blitzing of the Euro 2020 winners.
But as Nusa ended October’s double header with two more assists and another goal – Norway thrashed Israel 5-0 before a 1-1 draw with New Zealand on Tuesday – the former Club Brugge starlet can reflect with satisfaction on a record which reads 15 goal contributions in just 18 caps.
Erling Haaland called the RB Leipzig winger ‘exceptional’
A trademark driving run down the left forced an Israel own goal early on at the Ullevaal Stadium. A pair of glorious second-half crosses – one with his left boot and another with his right – means Nusa has now assisted Haaland six times already in a Norway shirt.
No wonder the planet’s finest marksman thinks so highly of him.
“He’s exceptional,” Haaland said a year ago this month. “We need to be careful not to put too much pressure on him, even though he’s incredibly talented. His continued development is what matters most.”
Although Nusa is yet to produce the goods with the same level of consistency for RB Leipzig, the Bundesliga giants are proven developers of young talent. West Ham, while boasting one of the most prosperous academies in English football, no longer possess quite such a reputation following a difficult few years and many failed signings.
Nusa, though, was the sort of addition the Hammers were looking for when they hired Steidten to unearth those rough diamonds. Fullkrug, a 32-year-old centre-forward on a reported £90,000-a-week, is just about the polar opposite.
“To be honest, I would have liked to bring [Nusa] to West Ham,” he told Sky Germany during the same interview in which Steidten admitted his admiration for Everton’s Tyler Dibling.
“He was injured for a long time [ruled out from February to April with a knee issue]. But when he’s fit, he has enormous potential and is an outstanding player.”
Steidten claims Luis Guilherme will come good eventually
Alongside Nusa, Dibling was another exciting young winger West Ham looked at when Steidten was pulling the strings in the recruitment department. There is, of course, a certain teenage wideman who could still claw back some East London goodwill.
Steidten insists Luis Guilherme will prove his worth at West Ham at some point down the line. Until that day arrives, and presuming it ever does, the 46-year-old German risks being remembered more for his ill-advised pursuit of Niclas Fullkrug above all else.
“I’m firmly convinced that Luis Guilherme will be an incredibly great player,” Steidten told The Athletic. “Bringing in a young player was perhaps the wrong [decision], in retrospect.
“But [Luis Guilherme is] not the wrong player.“
