West Ham’s fears for next season | defender still missing training. Seemingly, West Ham have just about survived a season with only the three fit centre backs. The Hammers go into the last six games of the season with, fortunately, all of the trio more or less fit but showing signs of creaking a little: Max Kilman has looked weary and off his best whilst Jean Clair Todibo has not managed a full 90 minutes since February.
Konstantinos Mavropanos, with limited game time, is at least the fittest of the trio without any outward signs of battle damage.
The summer recruitment campaign has to be done on a budget and is, seemingly, heavily reliant upon the bolstering of the back line by the return from loan of Nayef Aguerd from Real Sociedad.
Sent out on a season-long loan by Potter’s successor who clearly didn’t rate him, the Moroccan has wowed audiences in La Liga and made nearly thirty appearances for the Spanish side.
However he’s also had crippling knee pain and has missed several games: Reported in es.rue20.com:
“Nayef Aguerd is still absent from Real Sociedad’s training, still in the rehabilitation phase after an injury suffered a few weeks ago”.
It is clear that the season has been a bruising one for Aguerd which must be causing worries in the Graham Potter recruitment camp: Aguerd was seen as the ‘bonus’ freebie defender who will cost the club nothing in transfer fees as West Ham bought him for £30 million in July 2022.
The Hammers can only hope that a summer break and rehab will prepare Aguerd for a return to London Stadium to bolster the West Ham back line. Anything longer term will throw Potter’s plans for his back line into disarray and create more strain on an already tight transfer budget.
