West Ham have been linked with a number of players in recent weeks, yet it’s hard not to feel surprised, and a little frustrated that the club hasn’t progressed further in identifying talent at a preliminary level, for players ready to step into first team football.
This shouldn’t be a club operating in the dark ages. Behind the scenes, West Ham have spent the last year and a half building one of the most advanced data and analytics systems in world football. On paper, they should be looking to compete with clubs such as Brighton and Brentford in player recruitment. In practice, as many fans know, it doesn’t look that way.
Brighton revealed in 2024 that they employed just seven scouts. Seven!
The rest of their recruitment pipeline is powered by Jamestown Analytics, which filters thousands of players before a human even watches them.
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Brentford operate similarly, using Smartodds‑style modelling, tracking‑data analysis, and a recruitment process built on expected value rather than gut feeling.
These clubs don’t rely on massive scouting armies. They rely on systems. And those systems work. This is where West Ham should be flying.
Max Hahn, highly rated inside the club before leaving for Djurgårdens, to become their Director of Football was a key architect of West Ham’s new AI‑driven recruitment model.
Since moving to Sweden, he has according to Transfermkt already signed
• Christos Almyras — 21‑year‑old Greek U‑21 midfielder for €1m
• Daryl Tschoumy‑Nana — 19‑year‑old centre‑back from VfL Bochum on a free
Whether these are two smart, low‑cost, high‑upside signings remains to be seen, yet he is implementing the model he began, as he helped build the first end‑to‑end generative‑AI scouting system while at West Ham. This was announced by the club back in November 2025, having begun discussions with Amazon earlier that year, which I previously covered for C&H.
So what does the system do?
• Integrates physical metrics, technical data, contextual match insights, and player‑profile variables
• Uses machine learning + generative AI to benchmark and compare global players
• Evaluates players across performance, style, team dynamics, age, experience, and financial fit
• Designed specifically for West Ham’s internal workflows
• Supported by AWS’s Generative AI Innovation Centre and Crayon’s AI Centre of Excellence
This isn’t a generic data supplier. It’s a bespoke, cloud‑native AI system. It should be noted that the AWS technology is universal, so the technology isn’t exclusive, yet West Ham built a club specific AI scouting environment on top of the AWS.
To use a simple analogy, AWS built the engine and West Ham built the car.
West Ham’s Amazon‑powered model is arguably more technologically advanced than Brighton’s or Brentford’s but it’s also less mature. Brighton and Brentford have spent a decade refining their pipelines. West Ham are still in the early adoption phase.
Yet the danger is obvious, if the club doesn’t integrate the AI system into real decision‑making, recruitment meetings, shortlists, early identification then it becomes another expensive tool sitting unused.
Right now, the gap between capability and execution is glaring. The question is whether West Ham will finally turn their data revolution into a recruitment revolution.