Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Husillos identified the stunningly poor Roberto as their chosen goalkeeping option ahead of the Hammers board moving for Lukasz Fabianski!
The manager and his director of football had agreed that at between £3m – £4 million he would be their chosen No 1 stopper when arriving at the club.
But negotiations for Fab were already well in process at £7 million and the board decided that he would be the better option.
The situation was outlined by ExWHUFCemployee on his radio show and has since been confirmed to CandH by a top club source on e mail.
We were told: “They wanted to buy him a year earlier for £3-£4m but we bought Fabianski instead for more as we thought he was a far better option for more as we thought he was better.”
Now, with the situation collapsing around them there’s every possibility that No 3 David Martin could be called up for the match against Spurs.
Unbelievable seems to be the only suitable word.
If this story is true then we now know why the managers other signings are not good enough he & his team obviously have no idea how to evaluate if a player can perform in the Prem which means we are in serious trouble, I think the board must must lean on Pelle to change tactics & use some of the under 23 squad.
That is a frighteningly serious revelation. Now I’m assuming that Roberto has not had a major drop in form between being identified as “ their chosen” option to what we see now.
This puts a serious question mark about the reputation of both MP & MH in the identification & selection of players. In fact, if true, it makes the past form of David Sullivan look positively genius in his signings!
It can’t be true surely..was it in the sun?
Nope fraid it’s true
I’m sure it’s not just coincidence that this alarming drop in the team’s fortunes occurred at the same time as Fabianski’s injury. Many people underestimate how an enforced keeper switch can have a dramatic unsettling effect on a team and especially the defenders particularly if the players have no confidence in the keeper
……He is six-foot-four and full of muscles
They said, “do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave them a chorizo sandwich.
And he said……..
“I am the magnificent, double U, O, O, O, but you can call me:
RobertO………….”