Nayef Aguerd - signed (30m)

[Coffee]

"OS West Ham United complete Nayef Aguerd transfer West Ham United are delighted to announce the signing of Morocco international defender Nayef Aguerd. The 26-year-old joins the Hammers from French Ligue 1 club Rennes on a five-year contract and adds further quality and depth to David Moyes‚Äô squad. He will wear the No27 shirt. Aguerd has enjoyed two impressive seasons with Rennes, enhancing the reputation he established at FUS Rabat, Dijon and with the Moroccan national team. Now, the left-sided player will continue his career in the English Premier League, where his combination of talents will see him provide strong competition for Craig Dawson, Issa Diop, Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma. ‚ÄúI was really excited when I heard about West Ham United's interest,‚Äù said Aguerd, an impressive individual who speaks fluent French, English, Arabic and Spanish. ‚ÄúWhen I heard about it, I knew I needed to go to the Premier League, because it‚Äôs a dream for every player. ‚ÄúWest Ham is a historic Club. I saw a few of their games this year, and I saw the fans and the atmosphere were fantastic, with the bubbles! ‚ÄúI talked with the manager and he showed me that he was very interested, so it was easy to choose to come to West Ham.‚Äù Aguerd was born in the city of K?©nitra in the north of Morocco into a footballing family. His father played in the Moroccan top-flight, while his uncle Abdelmajid Bouyboud was capped 34 times and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals ‚Äì an achievement his nephew could emulate in Qatar later this year. As a boy, Aguerd represented local club KAC of K?©nitra before being scouted and recruited to the national Mohammed VI Football Academy in the capital city of Rabat, where he spent four years playing alongside the likes of Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri. In 2014, aged 18, he joined leading club Rabat FUS, making 12 appearances in his debut season and attracting the attention of a host of leading Spanish clubs. After bulking up and working hard on his game, Aguerd then inspired FUS to their first-ever Moroccan Championship in May 2016, scoring a vital goal against Ittihad Tanger that all but clinched the title. After scoring in the 2017 CAF Champions League and impressing regularly for FUS over the next two seasons, Aguerd joined French Ligue 1 club Dijon in 2018. Two encouraging seasons for Les Rouges led to a transfer to Rennes, where he started the club‚Äôs first-ever UEFA Champions League match at home to Russian side Krasnodar and featured in four of six group-stage fixtures in the autumn of 2020. Aguerd has thrived at Roazhon Park, making 66 Ligue 1 appearances and helping Rennes qualify for Europe in each of the last two seasons. He scored twice in seven UEFA Europa Conference League appearances and started 31 Ligue 1 games as Rennes finished fourth last term. At international level, the defender was capped at U20 and U23 level before making his senior debut against Albania in August 2016. Two years later, he helped Morocco win the African Nations Championship on home turf. He is now a regular in the Atlas Lions‚Äô starting XI with 25 senior caps and was an ever-present in Morocco‚Äôs successful 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign and run to the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals. Everyone at West Ham United would like to welcome Nayef to London Stadium and wish him all the best for his career in Claret and Blue."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"His stats don't look that bad https://www.365scores.com/football/england/premier-league/match/liverpool-west-ham/108-113-7/lineups#id=3825512 Watch him carefully and he's very good on the ball and in the air. Distribution is fine as well. However, he tends to panic when under pressure, especially when Soucek receives a pass from Paqueta and he plays it straight straight back to him. Reckon his positioning would improve if he didn't have to worry about what was happening just ahead of him all the time."

[Takashi Miike]

"he's positionally poor, very indecisive and reads the game badly. the odd sixty yard hollywood pass seems to mask the deficiencies with silly bollocks. mav should start the next league game"

[LAHammered]

"That’s 3 or 4 goals conceded over his shoulder , time for Moyes to sit his and Antonio’s bums down."

[nychammer]

He needs to be dropped

[Eerie Descent]

"Have a look back a few pages on this thread, he's been making these mistakes since the day he walked through the door, it was discussed after most games last season. The injury he picked up when he first signed was him making a hollywood recovery tackle after what we now know is a trademark mistake. The maddest thing about it is he apparently insisted on a release clause when he signed. A release clause! Fucking hell. I wish we had insisted on a fucking return clause."

[Browno22]

He's absolutely shit. Would be better as a defensive midfielder as he's not a centre back at all. Flog him for whatever we can get in jan

[Ron Eff]

"I think if this was an isolated incident, you’d say he was borderline unlucky, and a lot of centre half's would have given a penalty away. Unfortunately, it’s one of a handful and I agree he needs to be taken out of the firing line. What is frustrating is he was absolutely class aside from that one moment. A shit situation."

[Ron Eff]

"I think if this was an isolated incident, you’d say he was borderline unlucky, and a lot of centre half's would have given a penalty away. Unfortunately, it’s one of a handful and I agree he needs to be taken out of the firing line. What is frustrating is he was absolutely class aside from that one moment. A shit situation."

[swindon hammer]

Yeah I have to say that he’s becoming a problem for us now. The occasional mistake you can look past but if feels like every game now he is accountable for something.

[Eerie Descent]

"Well, that's Liverpool out the running to sign him. Let's hope to fuck that the Saudi's still want him, we desperately need to shit him lively. Absolutely liability, game after game."

[Come On You Irons]

"Another game, another goal conceding mistake by this fella. It's obvious now he is not ip to the rigours of defending in the Premier League. It's like we go into games a goal down with him in the team. Is it little wonder we haven't kept a clean sheet all season. Moyes needs to grow a pair and drop him for Sheffield United."

[Ron Eff]

"Least of all a defence minded manager. Anyway, at least we have the luxury of options."

[Eerie Descent]

"Yeah, pretty much, although personally I'd have cashed in if there was any chance in the summer. I personally think he'll be replaced by the Greek before long, if he's as good as we hope. No manager will keep a player in the team who's making mistakes every single time he plays."

[Ron Eff]

"Yeh, I think we’ve pretty much agreed, have we not? If the errors are cut out, we potentially have a good, ball playing centre half. If they don’t, we have an 18 year old Rio Ferdinand in a 27 year old senior player which is clearly a problem. I’d personally persevere for a bit."

[Eerie Descent]

""" A lot of the people who criticise him also criticise our style of play"" I think it's been clearly pointed out that our style of play is a big contributing factor. But the fact is, the errors are too many. Far, far too many. Until I read your last paragraph, that's exactly what I was going to say, you can't have rough with the smooth centre halfs. It's the last outfield position where that works. If it was the odd mistake every few games, then fair enough, but so far this season he's made glaring mistakes every game, luckily for us the ones against Bournemout & Luton didn't lead to goals, but weren't far off. Compare that to Zouma, you can barely remember a mistake by him. Aguerd you can barely name a match since he signed when he hasn't made at least one massive one."

[Ron Eff]

"He’s a player who you either take the rough with the smooth, or you just don’t rate or have him at all. For example when he calmly controlled the ball on the goal line from an open goal for I think Haaland in the first half, and played out from there (am sure it was Aguerd but happy to be told otherwise!) when others would swing a boot at it. Flip side is if that doesn’t come off, it’s another mistake. A tough one because a lot of his mistakes come from overplaying. A lot of the people who criticise him also criticise our style of play. I do appreciate there have been positional errors also… The problem is, rough with the smooth is fine with a Benrahma, less so with a centre half. I think he could be very good, but the mistakes do need to stop. I wonder if he could be a very good left back."

[Eerie Descent]

"I agree to a point Stubbo, the way we play is kryptonite to his positive skills, so would be interesting to see him in a front foot team, where he's not defending for 70% of most games. But I still think you'd see the absolute glaring errors too often. I've been told on here that £35mil ain't a lot of dough, and many said he's potentially world class. Funny how there wasn't a single rival for his signature, think we've seen why."

[stubbo]

"I just think he's a defender you want in a team playing a high line. Has the pace to cover the ball over or thru into space, whereas deep, crowded and in tight pockets weak spots in his game are emphasised and the strengths are neutered."

[solidbond]

He misjudged the pace on the ball it was like watching a batsman get done by the slower ball.

[the exile]

"Norf - he didn't mis-time the jump, it was just too high for him. I was more worried about at least two occasions when he left Haaland completely unmarked in the left side of our six yard box."

[the exile]

"I agree with Stubbo. In tight situations in our box (which is around 50% of the time in most of our games) he looks out of his depth. His marking and positioning can be poor. But if an opposing forward is through on goal, Aguerd is your man - his pace and tackling are exceptional. Good passer too."

[Norflundon]

Stubbo What tactics made him mid time that jump yesterday What tactics made him make that ridiculous challenge against Chelsea It’s nothing to do with the tactics the bloke just has a howler in him virtually every game it’s a shame because like ED says he’s got some excellent qualities….but so did Diop. We got rid of him as he couldn’t cut out the errors. In sone games they’re not highlighted because we get away with them like Luton Bournemouth and Chelsea. But make no mistake he makes them virtually every game. Goalkeeper and centrehalf are the two positions in the pitch that you can’t get away with errors very often and it’s much better to have a 7-8/10 steady player who doesn’t do the spectacular stuff but doesn’t make errors than a player who’s either 9-10/10 or 5/10. That’s ok if you’re a striker or winger but not if you’re a centrehalf

[stubbo]

"IMO the tactics are the problem. He's pacy, good on the ball...but the low low block means he can't use his pace and powers of recovery, and instead is relentlessly playing in tight, physical positions. Think he's a good player. Just our tactics don't play to his strengths."

[Eerie Descent]

"It's a real shame, because as has been well discussed he does have a lot of positive assets that are rare in a centre half, but the fact is it's huge mistakes every game, and it's been happening since the day he walked through the door at ours. The one big myth is about him needing time. At 27 years of age, being a fully fledged international, what time does he need? He's had over a year. He has looked excellent in spells in games, so that expels the time myth, the problem as is very evident is he's error prone, which is the worst thing you can be as a centre half, and you can't get away with it every week in the Prem. It's OK if you're playing for Rennes in France, but he's been badly exposed. Time will not sort out his proneness to errors, not at his stage in his career. He'll have the odd game where he's faultless, and the pillocks on here will once again be proclaiming him as the Moroccan Moore, but he is not the long term answer for a Premier League team, certainly not one that plays in our style."

[Manuel]

"Norf - Maybe a little harsh, but totally agree with your last sentence, Maguire is at a completely different level to this lad, no comparison whatsover, and I didn't even want Maguire in the end."