West Ham’s reported struggle to get the deal for England Under-21 star CJ Egan-Riley over the line should come as no surprise.
The Hammers are operating with a very stripped-down recruitment team while Kyle Macaulay and Graham Potter learn the ropes at West Ham.
One of the first decisions made after Potter’s arrival was to appoint former data analyst Macaulay as head of player recruitment and sack Director of Football [Tim Steidten](https://www.claretandhugh.info/tim-steidten/).
The German DOF certainly had his flaws and a tendency to overpay for players, but as a negotiator, he mostly got deals done.
Therefore, yesterday’s reports that West Ham were struggling to finalise the deal for Burnley’s CJ Egan-Riley are not surprising—recruitment was always going to be tough. As Martin wrote previously, the sticking point appears to be the Chelsea/Strasbourg interest in the England U21 centre-back, which has given the Hammers more competition than expected at this stage.
However, Macaulay is learning fast. He has been meeting agents and building contacts within the game. Hammers boss Graham Potter has personally phoned several of West Ham’s [transfer](https://www.claretandhugh.info/west-ham-transfer-news/) targets to convince them of his project.
And despite the Irons’ lowly league position, Potter is more than capable of presenting a compelling case as to how any individual player will fit into a much-improved West Ham side next season.
Personally-and despite news of the deal failing-I believe the club can still get this particular deal completed.