West Ham United right-back Vladimir Coufal has said that manager David Moyes has told him that it was a mistake dropping him out of the team.
Having been a mainstay at right-back for much of his career at West Ham since arriving from Slavia Prague in October 2020, Coufal found himself facing a spell out of the starting 11 in the final six weeks before the 2022 World Cup break, starting just once due to an injury crisis in defence at Southampton and playing only two further minutes against Bournemouth, coming on to win a penalty for the Hammers in a 2-0 victory.
However, since the reason restarted on Boxing Day, Coufal had started all nine league matches prior to suffering a heel injury that has seen him miss the Hammers’ last five games.
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Despite his recent lay-off, Coufal is currently on international duty with the Czech Republic squad alongside midfielder Tomas Soucek and could return to action on Friday night against Poland or if that comes too soon, could play against Moldova on Monday.
Following his spell out of the team, Coufal had been linked with a January transfer switch to Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, although that never came to fruition.
Speaking out on his earlier season drop in minutes, Coufal has revealed that Moyes has told him that he rang him to say he made a mistake over not dropping him and that he did not want him to leave the club.
“Right after the World Cup, he called me and said that I was important to him, that it was a mistake that I didn’t play a few matches,” Coufal told Sport.Cz , as published by Sport Witness.
“He said that if I had planned to leave for somewhere, he wouldn’t let me go.”
Coufal has also spoken out on the future of Moyes at the London Stadium, with the Scottish boss coming under much scrutiny in recent months, with West Ham sat 18th in the table and one point off safety.
The defender said he is not the best person to ask and despite the likes of Sean Dyche, Rafael Benitez and Nuno Espirito Santo all being linked as replacements in recent months, he said that he has had no reason to believe Moyes was ever close to facing the sack.
“I can’t say from my position, I don’t sit on the board,” Coufal added.
“Of course, there were some reports from the media that we have to win, otherwise the coach is in danger. With Everton, with Nottingham [Forest] or most recently with Aston Villa. But I read an interview where David Moyes said he had a great relationship with the board.
“I don’t know where a list came from, nobody said anything like that to my face.”
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