{"id":24209,"date":"2025-07-25T23:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T23:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24209\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T23:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T23:39:09","slug":"has-potter-pulled-off-surprise-defensive-u-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24209\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Potter Pulled Off Surprise Defensive U-Turn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would appear that West Ham boss Graham Potter has been true to his word in his efforts to persuade one of his wantaway stars to remain at the club.<\/p>\n

Early indications appear to suggest that rather than leaving East London in the Summer transfer<\/a> window, Nayef Aguerd could be set for an extended stay.<\/p>\n

The Moroccan central defender had informed club officials of his desire to leave following his return from a loan spell at Real Sociedad. With Potter keen to work with Aguerd\u2014and determined to have a left-footed centre-back to suit his preferred system\u2014the news was certainly unwelcome.<\/p>\n

Most Read on West Ham News<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Aguerd, rumoured interest from La Liga\u2019s top clubs never materialised. West Ham\u2019s stance never wavered. A club source told Claret & Hugh<\/a> at the time: \u201cIf nobody matches our valuation, he\u2019ll be reintegrated into the squad. The manager likes him.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it has proven. Aside from tentative loan enquiries from Marseille and Roma, no serious bids have emerged, and the Hammers have now decided to keep him it seems.<\/p>\n

Early signs from pre-season suggest Aguerd has inherited the No.5 shirt from the departed Vladim\u00edr Coufal\u2014perhaps a sign he\u2019s staying put?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aguerd has the No5 on his West Ham training kit<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old is well liked at West Ham, especially around the training ground, and there is no suggestion he has been disruptive. No doubt Graham Potter is relieved he won\u2019t need to recruit yet another player, particularly when he already has one tailor-made for his tactical setup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would appear that West Ham boss Graham Potter has been true to his word in his efforts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-24209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}