The £30m man Nayef Aguerd has made an honest admission about his West Ham United move as he issues a vow to fans.
Nayef Aguerd has been likened to a Ferrari and Rolls Royce by some excited West Ham fans at times this season.
But for a long spell at the start of his Hammers career, the club’s £30m supercar was stuck in the garage for repairs.
In just his second match for West Ham during a pre-season game at Rangers, the Moroccan centre-back sustained an ankle injury which required an operation.
He missed three months. And just as he returned, the World Cup break kicked in.
That helped Aguerd get his fitness up and some top level game time in the tank. But he has been taking a crash course in Premier League football ever since – and there have been more than a few bumps in the road.
David Moyes revealed he had chased Aguerd for two years after making him West Ham’s first signing of a £170m splurge last summer.
But the team simply has not gelled as fans and manager Moyes would have hoped. And Aguerd has – at times – looked a bag of nerves as he tries to adjust from the vastly inferior Ligue 1.
Too often one sublime, dominating display is followed by four or five shaky performances where he has made costly mistakes or been at fault when West Ham have conceded goals.
But Hammers supporters have seen enough to suggest there is a real player there.
Now £30m man Aguerd has made an honest admission about his West Ham move and issued a vow to fans.
The defender took to social media late on Monday night to deliver a frank assessment of his debut season.
And he insisted he wants to end it on a high by giving West Ham fans some long-awaited glory by lifting the Europa Conference League.
“The end of (the) Premier League season,” Aguerd said on Twitter.
“(It was) neither the start I dreamt about with this pre-season injury nor the end with our disappointing ranking.
“But we will give it all until the last second to bring a second European trophy to east London 58 years after.”
Let’s hope he is right. And next season, with a full pre-season behind him, Aguerd can really show the Premier League why he is so highly regarded.