Husillos under pressure

Interesting piece in the Guardian by Jacob Steinberg — who knows his West Ham stuff — saying that the board are taking a critical look at the summer dealings of director of football Mario Husillas. Most pointedly signing Fornals, another number ten, when the money could have been better spent on a box-to-box midfielder and also signing the underwhelming Roberto. Steinberg points out that Roberto had been in the reserves all season at Espanyol and had played in a relegated Malaga team before that, so it's not surprising if he looks rusty.

Presumably Husillos also recommended Haller, who may well come good, but losing Obiang, Adrian and Hernandez without adequate replacements  seems poor, particularly as Ajeti has done little to impress so far. Although if Husillos is identifying all the targets then he deserves some credit for last season signing Fabianski, Diop, Balbuena, Fredericks and Anderson and possibly Yarmolenko even if Jack Wilshere was a very poor call.

Pellegrini surely deserves criticism too, as it's hard to believe he doesn't have the final say on signings and he has picked some strange teams recently. How will Manuel react if his man Husillos is ditched? I expect we'll be hearing more about this. Click on the link to read the whole piece.

Super Mario is Director of Football

But WHU do now have a new Director of Football. He's Manuel Pellegrini's old mate from his Malaga days, Mario Husillos. As someone said on Facebook, he looks a bit like an older Robbie Williams. Mario's from Argentina but also has good Spanish links, so we could be in for some interesting signings. It seems David Sullivan has finally relinquished control of player purchasing and Husillos will have "complete strategic control" of recruitment. This is the right thing to do and what the fans have been asking for. And if it all goes wrong, at least we'll have a nw person to complain about.