West Ham United have confirmed that keeper Darren Randolph has left the club to join AFC Bournemouth on a permanent transfer as Claret and Hugh reported was set to be the case last night.
The 35-year-old made 52 appearances for the Hammers across two spells, keeping 15 clean sheets, and kept goal in the 3-2 victory over Manchester United in the final game at the Boleyn Ground in May 2016.
The Republic of Ireland international initially joined West Ham in summer 2015 and spent two seasons in east London, playing 42 times and appearing for his country at UEFA Euro 2016, before joining Middlesbrough.
He returned in January 2020 and has provided squad depth over the past three years, making a further ten appearances.
With just six months remaining on his contract and promising 22-year-old Joseph Anang returning from a loan spell at Derby County to provide cover for Łukasz Fabiański and Alphonse Areola, Randolph was snapped up by Bournemouth.
Claret and Hugh says: Randolph’s departure takes only a relatively small amount off the the Hammers wage bill, The player would have been on around £50k a week, which given that he has played just a handful of games since returning remains a bonus with Danny Ings having arrived, and rumours persisting of others perhaps being signed before the end of the window. However, he looks likely to be remaining in the shadows on the south coast with the Cherries having a couple of useful keepers. Regardless of that we wish the stopper all the best in this next phase of his career.
Question:
With the Boards reluctance to deal with Moyes, (unlike those around us) with our players and ‘future’ players wanting away from the club with players apparently refusing to sign for the club with no apparent depth in the squad and with the Rice debacle ongoing as to how much he is worth now to in 12 months time is West Ham see as a club in crisis?
Answer:
No, we are a club is transition.
Your question is fuelled with inaccuracies…
The board isn’t reluctant to deal with Moyes… They supplied him with £170m to improve our squad and brought in Ings in this window. What’s your evidence that he’s not being backed?
The ‘wantaway’ stories are media hype, and typical when a club is in the situation we’re in, so calm yourself.
Players refuse to sign for clubs all the time, and for a myriad reasons. We’re just focusing on every day activity and shining a massive spotlight on it to make it seem worse than it is.
No apparent depth…? Our squad has never had more depth… Whether Moyes chooses to utilise that depth is perhaps the question.
How is Rice’s valuation a debacle?? Relax, man! Of course there’s going to be speculation, and yes he will leave, and yes we’ll receive a decent chunk of money that will be reinvested into the squad. It’s football…
The fact is, we stumbled upon two unexpected, but brilliant seasons, which naturally adjusted expectations from relegation scrapping to European contenders. To build on that, we had to (and did) invest in squad depth. The ‘transition’ is a blend of these new (higher quality) players coming in, and a dramatic fall in form for the players who earned us those lofty expectations – Antonio, Cresswell, Bowen, Soucek and Coufal…