West Ham technical director Tim Steidten has been asked to stay away from David Moyes and his first team for the remainder of the season as the club continues to search for a potential new manager.
Moyes’ contract expires at the end of the season and no concrete decision is expected to be made on his future until he holds talks with co-chairman David Sullivan after the final game.
However, expectations have grown over the past two weeks that Moyes would move on this summer and Steidten has played a leading role in the search for a replacement.
Although the German has not been formally banned from the club’s training ground, after internal discussions it has been decided that he should not be in daily contact with Moyes or his players in the final weeks of the season, but he is still expected to attend matches.
The Hammers currently lie eighth in the Premier League and would slip to ninth if Chelsea avoid defeat against Tottenham tonight. They are not out of the race for the European places, however, with games against Luton and Manchester City following their away game at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
Steidten arrived in east London last summer after previous spells at Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen. There were early reports of tension between Moyes and the new man over transfer targets, but West Ham had a successful transfer window, signing the likes of Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse.
Although Steidten travels frequently for work reasons, the 45-year-old has been a visible presence at the London Stadium on match days this season, regularly appearing on the sidelines before games.
His task this summer will be to rebuild an ageing squad and, in all likelihood, find a successor to Moyes.
The club held talks with Sporting CP chief Ruben Amorim last week and have done the same with former Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui. Hansi Flick, previously coach of Bayern Munich and the German national team, and Lille’s Paulo Fonseca have also been linked with the job.
