David Martin – who joined the Hammers as third goalkeeper under Manuel Pellegrini – has been recalling the man brought in as Number two to Lukasz Fabianski – the catastrophic Roberto.
Pellegrini signed Alvin Martin’s son at the same time and was forced to give him some games after some dreadful errors by the Number Two.
And although Martin fulfilled his dreams by following his Dad as a Hammer he admits that he felt awful for Roberto whom he only wanted to succeed
Talking about the Spaniard’s time at the club he said that could feel the pressure around and for himself he just wanted Roberto to do well.
He said: “Genuinely, hand on heart, I wanted the club to do well and I wanted him to succeed.
“But then also in the back of your mind, I remember even seeing an interview from you [James Collins] and you were saying, you’ve got to play Dave Martin.
“I was supporting him in training as much as I could, after games talking to him, it was tough.
“You could feel it in the stands, you could feel it on social media, reading online.
“For Roberto, I felt really sorry for him.
“He was a good goalkeeper, you could it was definitely [affecting him in training], the last three or four games, it was really getting to him.
“After the Burnley [match] especially, even the players were really starting to turn negatively towards him which was really hard to watch as well.
“And you could see coming in in the morning he didn’t want to speak.
“Going into games, he was actually making some saves, but like what we said before, you’re judged as a goalkeeper by your mistakes and he was making mistakes, there’s no getting around it.”
In the end Martin took over and replaced the Spaniard against Chelsea where he kept a clean sheet in the Hammers single goal win.
Fans saw him at the end of the game celebrating with an embrace for huis iconic West Ham father who was a legendary central defender for us
Roberto finally spent time away from West Ham on loan before leaving his highly forgettable period at the club.
That David Martin moment after his debut is one of my best West Ham memories