Pablo Fornals cannot wait for the 2022/23 season to begin – and to welcome an old friend to West Ham United.
The popular No8 returned to his homeland of Spain for the summer break, where he and long-term girlfriend Lara became engaged and they and young son Martín made a welcome visit home to friends and family.
While Fornals thoroughly enjoyed his time in Castellón de la Plana, he could not wait to head back to east London and swap his flip-flops for football boots and kick-off his preparations for the campaign ahead.
Now starting his fourth season in Claret and Blue, the 26-year-old feels comfortable at London Stadium, but he is determined to continue to develop and improve and help his Club continue the growth that has seen them qualify for Europe in each of the previous two Premier League seasons and reach last year’s UEFA Europa League semi-finals.
Fornals is a happy Hammer, and his mood has only been improved further by the Club’s signing of his old friend Nayef Aguerd, who he met when both were 16 and the Morocco defender went on trial to his Spanish club, Málaga.
Speaking at the end of a draining first day at West Ham’s pre-season training camp in the French town of Évian-les-Bains, the Spain international was in decidedly positive mood…
This is my seventh pre-season as a first-team footballer and my fourth here at West Ham.
I’m really pleased to be here [in Évian], it’s a nice place with good weather and people came back really well just to keep fighting and to keep playing how we did in the last two seasons.
I’m happy to be back, to be honest. It’s always fun to see the family and spend time with the close family and I wanted to be as away from football as possible in Spain and I didn’t touch the ball but, when it’s more than two weeks, we need to feel the ball back at our feet and this sense, so I’m happy to be back!
The work has been very good since we returned nine days ago.
I have been preparing in Spain for a bit before I arrived it and it helped me out and I think all the work we are doing in pre-season is going to be felt and be better for the season.
Sometimes it is hard and sometimes we are training two or three times per day, but we are going to need it and, as I say, it’s better for us.
The Club is growing and making and trying to do what we did last year every season.
This is why us as players want to stay here, because we are growing a big West Ham and, for all of us, it’s really good to be in one of the best moments of the Club and be part of the success.
We know we’re not in the Europa League this season, but we’re in the Europa Conference League and we want to play as many games as possible and, to be honest, the final in the Conference League was a decent final [between Roma and Feyenoord] that could have been a game in the Champions, so it’s not going to be easy at all.
I don’t know if it is the mentality of this Club that has changed, or the desire of the people around this Club to make the Club grow.
Hungry people, of which I am one, want to stay in places where they can grow. I’m a team player and if my team is still growing, I want to be part of that.
The most important thing about Nayef Aguerd is that he’s a really good guy.
I met him when I was 16 and we still keep in touch, so that means it’s because both of us are people who try to be around honest people, and this guy is.
I think Málaga made a big mistake not giving a chance to him, but look at the career he has made in football and a Club like West Ham is bringing him in.
I am really pleased to be playing with this guy again because when I first met him I saw good things from him.
We have since gone on our own career paths, but I’m really happy that our lives and careers connect us again.
