LONDON - Alan Curbishley has hired Italian Gianluca Nani as West Ham's first ever technical director after admitting he needs help finding his way in the global transfer market.
Nani will join West Ham in the summer from Brescia, where he has helped develop the likes of Italian World Cup winners Andrea Pirlo and Luca Toni over the last nine years.
Nani's main responsibility at West Ham will be to work with Curbishley on all transfers, while improving the club's international scouting network and developing the famed youth academy.
Curbishley played an active role in the recruitment process and interviewed the five shortlisted candidates - none of whom were English - before settling on Nani.
The 45-year-old Italian boasts an extensive network of contacts in Europe, an area Curbishley believes has been West Ham's blind spot.
"I need to have my eyes opened," said Curbishley.
"I need more information. At the moment we are limited in our choices. Football is a global business now and at the moment I don't think we are in a position to compete.
"In Gianluca we have brought in a man who can help me enormously in what I want to do and help push the club forward.
"When I am looking for a player I don't want just one or two options. I want more than that, I am expecting to be given five, six or seven options.
"We need that knowledge and I haven't got that knowledge.
"Gianluca, with his success, with his network, with his contacts, is the person I need to help me in the recruitment area of the club, at senior level and venturing down into the academy level.
"That network and infrastructure is something we are lacking at the club and will be beefed up. It will give us as much a chance of securing home-grown talent, foreign talent, young players, experiences players, as the other clubs.
"If you look at the top of the Premier League, the clubs have people out there constantly trying to bring that talent to the club. That is what we feel we need."
Nani's job is to attract the best players from around the world to West Ham, be they youngsters or established names for the first team.
But the Italian also assured fans that he has no intention of ignoring the history and tradition attached to West Ham's youth academy.
Freddie Sears, the latest talent off the production line, scored on his debut against Blackburn on Saturday as West Ham came from behind to win 2-1.
Nani said: "We are in a global market. We will try to find the best foreign players - but that doesn't mean we will break what is the best academy in England, maybe in the world.
"We must improve the English players too because the fans like to recognise a player. We have to keep the tradition of bringing through English players.
"We have to be proud of the work that has gone before in producing players like Frank Lampard Jnr and with Joe Cole.
"We have to follow this tradition - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to sign players like Kaka or Adriano when they are young.
"This club has incredible potential. It is ambitious and we want the club to meet that potential."
Arsenal are a clear influence in West Ham's thinking, with Arsene Wenger one of the most successful managers in the game at spotting an unpolished gem and turning him into a superstar.
"I don't want to be in a position anymore where a player joins a club and we don't know anything about it," added Curbishley.
"We are hoping to be on a level playing field now."
The appointment of directors of football, sporting directors or technical directors have not been a resounding success in the English game.
Curbishley insists he will always have the final say on any transfer - but he is also confident the pair will work well together.
"I will pick his brains, pick his network and ask for advice - but I will always have the final say," he said.
"I have been a major part in the recruitment and in the job description. Maybe at other clubs the technical director has had more of a far-reaching brief.
"We are concentrating on one area where we feel we need help.
"If you look at his record while he has been at Brescia, the players who have gone through that club, it has been a breeding ground for a lot of the big clubs in Italy.
"A lot of the players playing in the national side have gone through Brescia."
