One of the many positives of the West Ham summer window is that we finally got rid of some of the deadwood.
But the not so good news is that the four exits on deadline day or just after, in Kurt Zouma’s case, were all loan deals.
However, one of the players who left the club really did us some damage with his eventual decision.
The Irons signed Nayef Aguerd from Rennes in the summer of 2022 for a hefty £30 million, and he went on to become the latest chapter in our “rubbish signings book” – as he was obviously never going to be suited for Premier League football.
Despite letting us down on the pitch, he has let us down off of it as well.
Due to his stubbornness or advice from his agents – take your pick. He rejected a move to leave West Ham to join Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad, before he linked up with Sociedad – one that would have seen us pick up a more than handy £21 million. The reject move to Saudi was all the more baffling given that he’d employed a Middle East based agent to get him a move to that very league.
As a result of all this, he was eventually sent out on a straight loan to Sociedad , which means that the Spanish club do not have either an option or indeed an obligation to sign him permanently next summer.
The money that we would have received for the Morocco international would have certainly helped out Lopetegui with the funds for another striker and a left-back. Quite possibly, the funds would have been used for a final bid for Jhon Duran which looks unlikely now.
With a bit of luck we will finally be able to get a decent fee for him next summer
Your vitriol for this man is beyond love for a club, it’s disgusting. No wonder this club can’t keep decent players and is falling behind with gaining new fans when this is the type of nonsense that represents the club.
Disgusting.
Why is it the job of the player to accept a bid to play in a country that beheads people for fun just to suit the club. Have you lost your minds.
Filthy, racist, Islamophobia nonsense from this site. Get away from our club. No doubt where you all were during the “riots” hey. Gods alive.
Extremely low quality and low class ‘journalist’ calling players that have reached the highest level of the sport ‘deadwood’ is pretty laughable.
Man I wish there was a Google filter to edit out this crap when I search for West Ham news
Give it a year and you’ll be able to re-hash this with the headline, “Fullkrug: West Ham’s Biggest Financial Flop Since Aguerd”
I reread your article as was incensed by the distortions, misrepresentations etc. etc. and was going to take it apart , line by line. then decided it would be a waste of my time , and I doubt that you be open minded anyway, you write elsewhere about being opinionated, l suggest this article is right up there with the worst .
“Despite letting us down on the pitch, he has let us down off of it as well.”
Wow. Never thought that basic sentence structure would be an issue here, Simon. Seems you’ve gone from invariably giving incorrect facts/stats to just forgoing correct use of the English language now.
Here’s a free lesson for you. If you start a sentence with “Despite…” the following has to contradict/counter the opening. For example, “Despite letting us down on the pitch, he has helped us out off of it.” Maybe if you used a smattering of knowledge of the English language you’d realise that “Not only has he let us down on the pitch..” or “As well as letting us down on the pitch…” would actually make sense.
I’ve already complained about the use of the word ” deadwood” but I’m afraid
THEY will take no notice
RESPECT . RESPECT . RESPECT.
THEYwill continue to treat people with utter disrespect, especially when it’s unwarranted. shame on the site.
Even if you word it really nice and respectfully there’s no getting away from the fact that Aguerd has been an awful signing for the club and a complete waste of money. We struggled to even give him away this window.
Player who ALLEGEDLY refused to play for us so as to not risk injury for his country. Not very respectful on his part if those rumours were true.
Aguerd loved this club and it spat in his face in return. It’s beyond obvious anyone believing the rumours about him has never paid an ounce of genuine attention to the kind of man he is. Shame on all of you for regurgitating blatant lies. Why would a player who wants to leave buy his family a house here? So he can sell it again straight away? Why go through the trouble
Simon, If you think calling some of our players ‘deadwood’ is OK then you won’t mind me saying that this site could also follow suite and get rid of some deadwood in its ranks starting with you Simon.
Lets not have double standards with the use of this word.
“…as he was obviously never going to be suited for Premier League football.”
Not sure i understand this, please explain why?