Nayef Aguerd costs West Ham £20m as journalist lifts lid on ridiculous loan deal

Add as preferred source on Google

West Ham have been trying to offload Nayef Aguerd for some time and he finally looks set to leave at the last possible moment on deadline day.

Hammers News reported yesterday that tensions between West Ham and Nayef Aguerd had reached boilinbg point.

Because despite the £30m flop making it clear he wanted out some time ago and the Hammers making it clear he’s not in Julen Lopetegui’s plans, Aguerd has been snubbing offers left, right and cenrtre.

Attractive clubs from La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, UAE and Saudi Pro League have all made offers for the West Ham defender.

Wolves had also thrown their hat in the ring late in the day having sold Max Kilman to West Ham for £40m earlier in the window.

But Aguerd has been refusing to move. Not ideal for West Ham who need to clear players out in order to make signings and continue to balance the PSR books following an extensive summer rebuild.

Aguerd has cost West Ham £20m with Saudi snub

A rebuild which involved signing three new defenders after West Ham’s rearguard shipped a club Premier League record 74 goals last season.

It was revealed by a Hammers insider that Aguerd was waiting for a bigger club to come in for him.

That infuriated many West Ham fans who accused the player of delusions of granduer.

With Kurt Zouma leaving too, West Ham would – ideally – liked to have had time to sign a back-up defender had they been sure Aguerd would leave.

Now it looks like the Morocco international is on his way.

But Aguerd has cost West Ham £20m as a journalist lifts the lid on his ridiculous loan deal.

Journalist lifts lid on ridiculous deal West Ham forced to accept

According to earlier reports the Hammers accepted a bid from Saudi for Aguerd which was a £4m loan fee with a £16-17m obligation to buy.

Aguerd is said to have snubbed that move, insisting he wanted a big European club.

Now he is set to join Real Sociedad before deadline.

But West Ham fans won’t believe how bad the deal is by comparison to the Saudi offer.

Foot Mercato’s Santi Aouna, who was the first to break news of West Ham’s move for Lucas Paqueta, claims Aguerd is joining the Spanish club on a straight loan deal.

Not only is there no option or obligation to buy included, Real Sociedad – it is claimed – will be paying West Ham a paltry £1.6m loan fee.

By snubbing Saudi – which is of course well within Aguerd’s rights – West Ham have effectively missed out on £20m. Not to mention the fact the club has been directly hampered signing a potential replacement as a result too.

That will not go down well with the West Ham board who have essentially been forced to accept the deal given Aguerd’s refusal to move elsewhere.

Of course Aguerd may impress in Spain and attract a permanent bid.

But there is also the risk what was a £15-20m West Ham asset this summer gets injured and his value plummets further.

Aguerd started last season in the same kind of inconsistent, error-prone form that has been an unwelcome feature of his time at West Ham.

David Moyes spoke out publicly and stated that the £30m signing’s performances must improve.

Before Christmas it looked very likely that Aguerd may have played his last game for West Ham.

He made himself unavailable for West Ham due to illness for games over the festive period.

But he then jetted off to meet up with the Morocco squad for AFCON where his error dumped the Atlas Lions out of the tournament.

Aguerd found himself benched for much of the second half of the season.

So he has had many months to sort out his future. The fact it has come down to the final hour of the window and is completely on the player’s terms is hugely frustrating and damaging for West Ham’s balance sheet.