West Ham United’s Nayef Aguerd completed a loan move to Real Sociedad on deadline day.
New West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui didn’t include the centre-back in his plans this season. This convinced Aguerd to look for options that would allow him to continue to grow.
On Thursday, the La Liga side presented the West Ham man to the local media. He talked about his decision to join the Spanish club.
“I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to play in La Liga and doing so in a club like Real is perfect. That’s why I speak Spanish so well, because since I was little, I wanted to learn it to play in La Liga one day,” he said, as quoted by AS.
The Morrocco international’s comments are also relayed by El Desmarque. The 28-year-old was asked if he had to think much after he received a call from La Real.
Responding to that, Aguerd explained: “Not really. When I spoke with Roberto [Olabe] and with the coach as well, I knew that he was aware of the responsibility of coming here and the truth is that it is undoubtedly a very healthy club, which helps the players a lot to improve.
“I’m looking for this to continue growing and the club also wants to grow and be at the top of La Liga and the world.”
Real Sociedad saw Robin Le Normand leave them for Atlético Madrid in the last window. His exit forced them to look for a new centre-back.
La Real president Jokin Aperribay also gave his take on his side’s decision to sign Aguerd on loan from West Ham. His quotes are relayed by Noticias de Gipuzkoa and he suggested Real Sociedad took a gamble with the Hammers man.
“We were dealing with many centre-backs, for some we already knew that we would have to wait because when we spoke with their clubs they were selling and not loan. We knew that if we approached the operation before August 25th we had to go for some names and we hoped after the 25th we could go for others,” Aperribay said.
“Hummels was one of them. There were more players that were on the list. We already knew that we had little time, that we had to act quickly, and we were prepared to act.”
“There was a moment when we decided to wait until the end to opt for one of the loans, and the player who most convinced the people who had to make the decision was Nayef. We entered the last few days thinking that if it wasn’t him, no one was going to come.”
Earlier reports made it clear Real Sociedad didn’t want an option to buy because they have youngsters coming through, so are unlikely to take the West Ham player permanently.
