According to a report from the French media outlet L’Equipe, West Ham have set a ludicrous £38m asking price for Nayef Aguerd.
The story suggests that Ligue 1 side Lyon approached the Hammers and were shocked at the high valuation. The French club are understood to have focused their attentions elsewhere, understandably believing there is no value at that price.
Interestingly, the story comes on the same day it was reported that Said Benrahma may have to return to West Ham from Lyon due to a transfer embargo, so clearly, both stories can’t be true.
Assuming West Ham did ask for £38m for Aguerd, it’s unsurprising there have been no takers. The Moroccan is a decent player, but it’s hard to make a case that his value has risen since his signing for £30m from Stade Rennais F.C.
This would also probably be a good time to point out that my good mate and dearly missed Hughie was no fan of Aguerd. As soon as the story broke, I could hear him tutting in the back of my mind saying “he’s just not worth that money Krissy boy”.
As for any Aguerd transfer, West Ham might get a deal closer to £20m, I’d imagine.
Why should we keep paying X for players and then one or two years later, sell them for a 10-15 million loss? We may not think he’s worth 38 million but we paid 30 million for him and he bas attributes that we clearly lack at the back; pace! Perhaps under a manager who plays a different style that doesn’t mean we have 20% possession and are under constant pressure, he may thrive and maybe the idea is to put other teams off as we want him to stay, and if he does go, it’s at a premium. I don’t see the problem at all. Sell him for 20 million and buy who exactly? Nobody
As Paul Mcartney said, there’s good and bad in everyone. Aguerd can be very good and he can also be very bad. Nothing to do with the system or the manager. He just needs to cut the mistakes out of his game.
Yes it definitely does have something to do with the system and the manager. Under Moyes we were happy to give up possession and counter attack on the break. This means we spent a lot of time without the ball and chasing to close down. If you are giving your opponent 65 or 70% possession, then your defence and midfield are having to concentrate and chase a lot more than they would if you play a possession based system. If you have possession of the ball 65 or 70% of the time, you are chasing a lot less, having to coventrate less and also not having to defend as much. So yes, the system and the manager does make a big difference.
Totally agree broking, I’d rather keep him than sell him moyes had great ability to demoralise a players confidence if we could manage to sign Kilman I think Augard and Kilman would be a parternaship in Central defence
Not being funny, but Hughie was a journalist and not actually anything to do with football apart from journalism. His opinions on players and their worth are exactly that, opinions. No better or worse, than the opinions of any other person who watches Aguerd play. Please don’t think I’m saying that to be controversial or rude, I’d never do that – it’s to be factual. Hughie and I had quite a few conversations where we agreed, disagreed and lots in between. The reality (in my opinion) is that Aguerd is a better player than has been seen under Moyes because of the way Moyes utilisised him, and I’m not having a dig at Moyes either. It is possible to have an opinion without slagging anyone off! Once he was injured, before he had even really played, there becomes this issue of still proving yourself in the Premier league. Yes Moyes was the kind of character that if he lost confidence in a player then it took a lot of effort to get that confidence back and I know this from experience. So after injury and a couple of mistakes, I’d guess Aguerd was having to fight his corner to even get his name on the team sheet. Although Moyes brought him in, he wasn’t suited to Moyes tactics, he is a better player with the ball at his feet, and also has the speed to recover when needed. Definitely not a “don’t mess with me and clear it” kind of defender. Aguerd would quite probably flourish under a coach like J-Lo so why not just leave things well alone and see? And reading between the lines of gossip, either we have priced him out of a transfer on purpose so that he stays with us for that reason, or maybe Lyon aren’t as free and clear of their transfer embargo as they like to think. But in reality, it is 100% all speculation either way unless the only evidence u have is a quote from a French newspaper who surely couldn’t be slightly sympathic to the Lyon situation. What do u think, Gonzo?
Well written
Wow, that’s optimistic for a player that hasn’t been playing and is trying to get a move. I’m all for improving the way we sell players, but we’ve backed ourself into a corner on this one.