The manager of West Brom Slaven Bilic has expressed his disappointment over the sales of the club’s defender Ahmed Hegazi to a Saudi Arabia based club Al-Ittihad.
The Premier League club allowed the 29-year-old Egyptian center-back to leave the club this summer on loan to Al-Ittihad. Hegazi will remain at the Saudi Arabia club permanently from the 2021-2022 season after his season-long loan deal.
Slaven Bilic lamented that the club promised him that they won’t sell the Egyptian defender but ended up doing the contrary. The tactician argued that the Egyptian defender wanted to stay at the Premier League club but the club’s top hierarchy ensured that he left for Saudi Arabia.
To emphasize how important the defender was to the team, Slaven Bilic stressed that Ahmed Hegazi was prepared to play the Monday match against Brighton which ended 1-1. It was days before the match that the team was told that the player has been transferred outside the Premier League.
“It wasn’t my decision. It wasn’t a football decision to be fair”, Slaven Bilic said after West Brom’s 1-1 draw with Brighton on Monday. “I am very disappointed. We are a team that needs all our good players.
“He is the player that has know-how in the Premier League, that has vast experience, a national team player, a great professional, and played last week against Burnley.
“The whole week he was training with us and when we were doing the shape, even on Saturday, he was there. I had assurances he was going to stay and so that makes me very, very disappointed that he left.
“I wanted him to stay. He wanted to stay this week. It was a shock that he left. The club wanted to sell him.”
Ahmed Hegazi first joined West Brom on July 17, 2017, on loan from Egyptian club El Ahly before he made his stay at the Premier League side permanent on January 1, 2018, for just €5 million.
The Egyptian defender followed West Brom to relegation at the end of the 2017-2018 season. He remained with the club and fought with them until they returned to the Premier League at the end of the 2019-2020 season.
Though West Brom’s coach said he was disappointed that the club sold him, Hegazi has not been having the best of time at the club as he managed to play just once in the Premier League this season before the club allowed him to go.
After three seasons at the club, the Egyptian defender made only 104 appearances in all competitions for West Brom in which he scored 4 goals and provided 2 assists.
West Brom said: “The club would like to thank Ahmed for his contribution over the last three seasons and wishes him, and his family, all the very best in the future.”
We can confirm Ahmed Hegazi has left to join Saudi Arabian side @ittihad.
— West Bromwich Albion (@WBA) October 26, 2020
Wishing you all the very best for the future, @Hegazi 👊
