Konstantinos Mavropanos Signed

[Alan]

"West Ham United sign Greece international Konstantinos Mavropanos West Ham United are delighted to announce the signing of Greece international Konstantinos Mavropanos. The centre-back ‚Äì known to his family, friends and teammates as 'Dinos' ‚Äì arrives at London Stadium from German Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart on a five-year contract for an undisclosed fee. Capped 19 times by his country, Athens-born Mavropanos is a dominant presence at 6‚Äô4, a defender who plays on the front foot and is now looking forward to bringing his extensive range of talents to east London. ‚ÄúI am really happy and excited to be here ‚Äì and to be back in the Premier League with West Ham United,‚Äù said the new No15, who made his Premier League debut as an Arsenal player in 2018. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs an exciting time to be joining the Club after last season‚Äôs Conference League win ‚Äì and I am really looking forward to the next step in my career. I can promise the fans I will give everything for them and the shirt.‚Äù Born in Athens in December 1997, Mavropanos started his career with local club Apollon Smyrnis as a ten-year-old before signing his first professional contract with PAS Giannina in the northern city of Ioannina in 2016. The tall, physically imposing defender debuted in a Greek Cup win over Agrotikos at 18 years and eleven months and totaled 20 appearances for PAS, including 16 in the Super League, while still a teenager. In January 2018, Arsenal brought him to north London, and he made his first appearance for the Gunners in a Premier League fixture against Manchester United three months later. The youngster played eight times across 18 months before being loaned to German side 1. FC N?ºrnberg in January 2020. Impressive performances there saw him sign a new Arsenal contract and be loaned to Bundesliga club Stuttgart for each of the next two seasons, 2020/21 and 2021/22. After netting five goals in 55 appearances, he made the transfer permanent in May 2022 and added another 34 games and three goals last term. For Greece, Mavropanos was capped at U21 level before making his senior debut in a friendly win over Honduras in March 2021. Since then, he has hardly missed a game, starting four FIFA World Cup qualifiers, six UEFA Nations League ties and all three UEFA European Championship qualifiers played so far. Everyone at West Ham United would like to welcome Konstantinos to London Stadium and wish him every success in Claret and Blue. Mavropanos spacer"

[Fifth Column]

"Fornals is much better central than on the left. Aguerd seems to me the best example of someone genuinely needing to take time to settle in the PL. His style of play and even his build as a CB seems unsuited to the PL. He is clearly a very talented, outstanding and positive player. It seems to me he needs to bulk up as he gets shoved off the ball and sometimes is just a little less aggressive than he should be. But then his recovery runs and tackles are often very good and he's made a number of saving tackles in the penalty area which have been world class. No idea what he was doing for the sending off though. Almost all footballers make bad decisions at some point. I doubt he'll ever do that again in his career."

[threesixty]

"Regarding Aguered, I'm not sure many players come to this league, hit the ground running and then maintain that consistency. From what I've seen if you hit the ground running you drop off quite heavily at some point and have to make your way back. I think it can take a year or so of constant playing in this league to be a consistent performer. I think Aguered has the talent and has proven himself in other competitions, (world cup etc.). I just think he hasn't had a full season here. He will learn. Players like Dawson have been playing for yonks in England, they know what it's about. I think it's the same with Kherer as well. I think the difference with this league is you just can't make mistakes and recover so easily, a mistake is a goal basically, or a card. So it's more about positioning and being pre-emptive. I think Zouma and Ogbonna understand that especially as they are not as mobile. Aguered needs to rely less on speed and dynamism and more about positioning and reading the game. He will get there I feel."

[Hammer and Pickle]

"When allowed to play in position, Fornals has always been decent."

[BillyJenningsBoots]

Injured apparently... according to Moyes. Doesn't sound like he'll play until after the International break.

[Eerie Descent]

"Fair enough mate. FWIW, Fornals has actually looked decent enough centrally in the first couple of games."

[Ron Eff]

"Not at all Eerie, I have plenty of negative opinioms on players, it was just a light hearted comment around you homing in and doubling down on your player of choice! Aguerd has made mistakes, thats agreeable, but he’s far from shit. I still don’t think you’re right on Fornals given we always look better when he plays, especially in his natural position (i.e, not left wing) but it’s all about opinions."

[Eerie Descent]

"Beat up? I know it's frowned upon on here to have a negative footballing opinion on popular players, but let's be honest, I was right about Fornals, although I've left him alone since he's been stuck on the bench over the last year or so."

[Ron Eff]

Fornals is happy that ED has at least found someone else to beat up

[Eerie Descent]

"My main worry with him fraser is he's 27 years old and cost £35mil. If he was 23 and we spent punt money, fair enough, but that's not the case. He's a record signing for us in terms of centre backs, is the prime age for a footballer, and is a seasoned international. For him to make the amount of mistakes he does, still after a year, is nowhere near good enough. I hope the fuck he comes good, we desperately need him to, but I'm finding it hard to think he will."

[fraser]

I really like Aguerd but ED makes some valid points.. Has loads of talent but has been error prone. I haven't given up hope that he can't cut them out or at least keep to a minimum. Kehrer managed it towards the end of last season.

[Eerie Descent]

"Russ, no problem giving players time, but he's been here a year, and from the moment he walked in the door he's been an accident waiting to happen. At £35mil, aged 27, and playing centre back, it doesn't matter if you're playing in a new country, when you're making the sort of mistakes he does most weeks it's not good enough. The terrible injury he got was directly because of one of his trademark mistakes, and he was frantically running back and made that Hollywood slide tackle (which has sucked everyone in, btw) so he brought that on himself. For keepers and centre halfs, the main thing before anything else is not to make mistakes, because they will invariably lead to chances/goals. Unfortunately for him, his Achilles heel is making mistakes. The problem everyone is having with judging him sensibly is he can do some outrageously good things, followed by horrendous stuff. Fact is, he is costing us every game."

[Russ of the BML]

"I am looking for big things from Aguerd this season. Last season was his first in PL and he got terrible injury. So difficult to judge. He just needs to work on his consistency. He goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. You can't do that. He has all the attributes needed and in the WC he looked so calm and assured for Morocco. I think with Ogbonna's age and Zouma's continual injury niggles, Moyes may be looking at Aguerd to partner Stavros in the long term. But Aguerd will need to be more consistent and assured if he is to hold down a long term place."

[Nagel]

"For me one of the worst things about Aguerd is how terribly one footed he is. It messes up his positioning as he tries to manoeuvre himself so he can use his left foot and it's why he lunges awkwardly at times, like with the sending off. That's not something he's likely to improve on much and it makes it easy to play against him."

[zebthecat]

I read yesterday that Aguerd might be going back to Rennes.

[Manuel]

"ED - Fwiw, as it makes fuck all difference to me or anyone else what your opinion of Aguerd is, and I'm not convinced about him either, but I think this season is the time to judge him, yes he looked shaky at B'mouth but was doing OK on Sunday before he saw red. I think there is a player in there so happy to see how he goes over the coming weeks. Jury still out for me, certainly not writing him off just yet, but clearly he needs to improve."

[Lee Trundle]

"Zouma mostly played as a centre back on the left side at Chelsea, so perhaps we'll see him shift there and see the Greek on the right hand side?"

[zebthecat]

ludo21 10:17 Thu Aug 24 We all know the answer to that question.

[zebthecat]

ludo21 10:17 Thu Aug 24 We all know the answer to that question.

[Eerie Descent]

"He won't be competing with Zouma, he'll be replacing the hapless Aguerd eventually."

[Lee Trundle]

Eerie Descent 10:05 Thu Aug 24

[ludo21]

"‘Reckon he'll be a rich man's Craig Dawson.’ Is this a dig? If he’s on a par with big Craig and we get 6-7 years out of him then I certainly won’t be complaining and it would be 20m well spent. I think he plays as a right sided CB so presumably he will either play in a three with Zouma and Aguerd or will compete with Zouma for the RCB slot. With Zouma’s injury record and cup games etc.. I’m sure he will get his chance. Would be interesting to see how three at the back works with only one DM (Alvarez) freeing up and exciting attacking midfield of Paq, JWP, Kudus with Bowen up top? If these additions come off then we are finally going to have some exciting options and a plan B if Moyes will use it!"

[Willtell]

We'll see. I'll be very surprised he's in the squad for Brighton. Mind you that's dangerous as he might take the place of one of the two keepers we usually have but I doubt whether he plays any part in the next few games.

[Eerie Descent]

Classic Tell'.

[LeroysBoots]

"Clearly one for the future !?! Do fuck off, he's 25, a full Greek international and regular in the Bundesliga"

[Willtell]

Just a personal observation that the media had several stories about him having back problems that could only be corrected by an op. Then the stories were about us renegotiating the price structure - probably over a greater period based on appearances. To counter that our PR department ran a story about his first day training showing lots of our squad with sweats on and doing various exercises then shift to a different scene with Mavropanos clearly 'training' on his own gently around some cones... Clearly he's one for the future so do we expect Maguire to rock up at the end of window?