West Ham United are expected to review the position of Tim Steidten, despite new head coach Graham Potter’s insistence that he can work with the club’s controversial technical director.

Julen Lopetegui, who was this week sacked and replaced by Potter, was the second West Ham head coach not to see eye to eye with Steidten, who stepped away from the training ground during the Spaniard’s final weeks in charge.

But Lopetegui’s departure has not lifted the pressure on Steidten, even though Potter has said he can work with the German, who agreed to stay out of the dressing-room while David Moyes was in charge.

No decision has been made over Steidten’s future, but his position is the subject of scrutiny and is likely to be reviewed ahead of West Ham deciding whether there needs to be any more changes behind the scenes.

West Ham have not ruled out Potter making further additions to his staff, which leaves the door open for Kyle Macaulay to potentially join him from Chelsea, although the Stamford Bridge club would most likely demand compensation which could be a stumbling block.

Macaulay has worked as a recruitment specialist with Potter at Chelsea, Brighton, Swansea City and Ostersunds.

Asked if he could work with Steidten, who he held talks with ahead of his appointment, Potter said: “Yes, absolutely. As part of the process, I met everybody on the board.”

“Everybody that I’ve met within the club has been fantastic. But I’ve only been here a few minutes, hours, so you’ve got to give me a bit of time to develop relationships.”

“But I can only say from the last 12, 13 years of my career, that’s what I’ve tried to do everywhere I’ve gone. It’s important that we have that togetherness, that alignment, that we’re going in the same direction.”

“As soon as you start going off in different ways, the Premier League is ruthless. So, the more together we are, the more aligned we are, the better. All the relationships I’ve had, all the conversations I’ve had with everybody at the club have been really positive.”

West Ham want to sign a new forward this month, as well as adding energy to the midfield. Along with interest in Evan Ferguson, Hwang Hee-chan and Latte Lath, the club have been asked to be kept informed of any developments regarding Marcus Rashford.

Rashford is expected to leave Manchester United on loan this month, although his wages and the size of the deal means that, despite their interest, West Ham are regarded very much as outsiders in the race for the striker at this stage.

Potter left the door open to new signings by saying: “I think in every window there’s always a responsibility for the club to look and to see if there’s anything that can help us in terms of whether that’s short-term, medium-term, long-term. That’s normal.”

“Every club in the world is in that position. The challenge for us is to make some quick decisions and to learn around what we have, what the strengths of the players are, how we can support them, if we can.”

Asked if the resources are there to make signings, Potter added: “Yeah, I would think so. But there’s a lot of ‘ifs’ there. If the right opportunity comes up, the right person, the right player, at the right price, there’s lots of ‘ifs’.”