Steven Gerrard played a key role in helping Aston Villa beat West Ham United to the signing of Jan Bednarek in the summer.
The Poland international came close to joining David Moyes’ side before Aston Villa took him on a loan deal from Southampton on deadline day.
West Ham summer signing Nayef Aguerd suffered an ankle injury in pre-season and had to undergo surgery. He is still on the sidelines and his situation forced the London club to look for a new centre-back.
The Hammers wanted to sign the Saints owned player, but Gerrard’s conversation with the 26-year-old convinced him to pick Aston Villa over West Ham. This has been revealed by the defender’s national team manager, Czesław Michniewicz.
“Janek told me such a nice sentence that he fell asleep as a West Ham United player, and woke up as a player of Aston Villa,” the Poland manager said, as quoted by Sport.pl.
“First, he talked to David Moyes, who invited him to West Ham and said that he needed a defender because the one they had brought for €35m had suffered a serious injury,” he added.
“And Janek was determined to go there. He wanted to compete with the other centre-backs. West Ham have a lot of games because they also play in the Conference League. But then Steven Gerrard called him and the conversation was different.
“He [Gerrard] just told him that he would be an important player for him. He used the argument of the World Cup. ‘I know you want to go to the World Cup. You will be playing at my place, you will prepare, I also have Matty Cash here, so it’s good for your team.’ This declaration convinced him.”
