West Ham are having second thoughts over appointing a director of football, according to the Telegraph.

The newspaper claim the London club have been tipped to name Malaga’s Mario Husillas or Leicester City’s Eduardo Macia as the replacement for Tony Henry, who was sacked as head of recruitment earlier this year.

The Telegraph report that it is “unlikely” West Ham will “hire a director of football at this time”.

OPINION

There is one emotion West Ham fans should feel at learning that a new recruitment chief is now unlikely to join – fear. The fear that a highly qualified expert at scouting, tracking and negotiating for players will not join the revolution. The fear that imminent new manager Manuel Pellegrini will not get the assistance he needs to bring in the best footballers on the available budget. Most of all, the fear that David Sullivan will continue to negotiate transfers and have the final say over who comes in and who goes out. The dysfunctional antics of the Hammers board is an increasingly big issue for supporters tired of the broken promises and lack of discretion. Sullivan, the power behind the throne, has talked about taking a step back to allow others to control the club’s transfer policy. Once again, that appears to be just that; talk. The co-owner clearly has no intention of diluting his powerbase or delegating to other more qualified individuals. Same old, same old at West Ham.