The chain of events that led to Graham Potter pinching Kyle Macaulay from Chelsea and hiring him as head of recruitment at West Ham started with a letter written more than 13 years ago.Macaulay has set to work in the frenetic final throes of the January transfer window — but he and Potter have lived much of their professional lives in tandem,

West Ham have been targeting a striker for the entirety of January. Captain Jarrod Bowen has missed several weeks due to a fractured foot, which only added to West Ham’s misfort