The 27-year-old lost his regular place in Gerard Houllier’s team in August, when Pole Jerzy Dudek and young England starlet Chris Kirkland arrived, and rejected a move to high-flying Spaniards Alaves.

He was recently dropped by Holland coach Louis van Gaal due to his inactivity.

While the Dutch have not qualified for next year’s World Cup, Westerveld was determined that PSV Eindhoven’s Ronald Waterreus should have competition as back-up to first choice Edwin van der Sar.

AZ Alkmaar’s Oscar Moens has even moved ahead of Westerveld in Van Gaal’s thinking and started in Holland’s last match.

He has walked away from a title-chasing side and straight into a relegation dogfight though.

A spectator at the Bernabeu last night as Sociedad crumbled 3-1 to Real Madrid to stay second bottom in the Primera Liga, Westerveld is sure his new team-mates possess the quality to preserve their top-flight status.

He has signed until summer 2005 and said: ‘‘I am very happy because everything has worked out positively.

‘‘I have come here to work hard and to help, amongst other things, Real Sociedad move up the table.’’

Westerveld had claimed he was relegated to fifth choice at Anfield, behind Dudek, Kirkland, Pegguy Arphexad and Jorgen Nielsen.

‘‘After my time at Liverpool it’s a very significant challenge for me coming to a team like Real Sociedad, one of the historic teams in the Spanish league, without doubt the strongest in the world at the moment,’’ Westerveld added.

Westerveld moved to Merseyside from Vitesse Arnhem in the summer of 1999 for £4million, a then British record fee for a goalkeeper.

He impressed for two seasons, and was a vital cog in the team which won the UEFA Cup, Worthington Cup and FA Cup last term.

It took the words of former Holland team-mates to sway him into the Sociedad switch.

He added, on Real Sociedad’s official website www.realsociedad.com: ‘‘I’ve spoken with several friends of mine, including Marc Overmars, Roy Makaay and Frank de Boer, and they all told me that Real Sociedad are a team that play good football and whose quality doesn’t correspond with their league position, something which I could see from myself yesterday while watching the game against Real Madrid.’’

Westerveld will be presented tomorrow, when details of the fee involved should become clear.

Tonight though, the man whose 2001 could have been one of unbridled joy - but for two blunders at Bolton - has ended a tortuous three months with a daring move.