Suddenly it’s preseason: The part of the training cycle that most players love to hate as the chance to gel as a group again is combined with manic hard work to reach new peaks of fitness ahead of the coming season. Some will have enjoyed themselves more than others and the training team will no doubt be righting the wrongs of holiday excesses where appropriate.
Faces such as Maxwel Cornet and Freddie Potts are featured on the Hammers’ ‘first day of preseason’ PR release. Potts in particular is a welcome returnee and must be odds-on for a starting spot this summer. Cornet on the other hand will surely be heading back to Italy on another loan as per previous reports.
The beast news- as our main image shows- is that Crysencio Summerville is back in training after his hamstring surgery. Whatever the stage of his recuperation -there’s likely some months to go – but good to see the young man back in the gym nonetheless.
Conspicuously absent from the photos and presumably the training session was Nayef Aguerd: Having scrolled through the Hammers’ photos there’s no sign of the central defender and it will be interesting to see if he puts in an appearance in the next few days.
Whilst Marseille are the latest side to be linked with an Aguerd transfer, he’s still a West Ham player and you’d hope the club, paying his wages, would have insisted that he return to the club with whom he’s contracted until June 2027. Graham Potter was interested in reintegrating Aguerd before the Moroccan let it be known he didn’t want to come back.
Of course, not every player was featured so we’ll keep a lookout over the coming days. Whilst the photos show harmless enough preseason kickabouts and gentle workouts , it seems there’s a bit of a battle of wills going on between Aguerd and the club that pays his £55k a week: Will be very revealing to see a couple of ‘Nayef Aguerd’ photos appear over the coming days. Or not.
If Aguerd is fit and doesn’t turn up , no pay , just like the rest of us . My suspicion is that he’ll feign injury to avoid coming back to Westham .
No show no pay. Could it not be simpler? Any player that isn’t committed to the badge comes in for training but not with the first team squad. Potter needs to grow a pair and quickly to rid of any toxic or non focussed players from anywhere near the first team
Is Aguerd fit, his season finished 1 or 2 games early in Spain due to injury, not sure how bad it was, interesting to know if he just hasn’t returned or his still injured so can’t train.
The club site says:
“as were Young Hammer of the Year Ollie Scarles, returning loanees Nayef Aguerd, Maxwel Cornet, George Earthy, Krisztián Hegyi, Callum Marshall and Freddie Potts.”
So Aguerd was present.
Yes but this article was just about what the photos on the West Ham website tell us. Not what the writing on the West Ham website tells us. A picture tells a thousand words as they say.
Aguerd may not feature in pictures but the club’s website says he is there.
If he didn’t turn up surely he’d be in breach of contract
Why are my comments not posted?
John all comments are now queued to be approved manually after idiots and morons took it upon themselves to write insulting and obscene posts. We are trying to carry on with the comments but there’s hundreds of you guys and not many of us. so, bear with us.
Fair enough. Thanks Martin.