GRAHAM Potter has a lot to answer for at West Ham. The club expected his choices and management decisions to be a big improvement on predecessor Julen Lopetegui.
In fact, the English head coach accelerated the club’s downward spiral to its current nadir.
Choosing to overlook a striker signing – which even Lopetegui prioritised – Potter instead went ahead and blew the best part of £20 million of the budget on a goal keeper who wasn’t fit for first team duty after surgery – and then threw him straight into the fray. Puzzling, considering Potter’s protective attitude to Freddie Potts. Predictably (in hindsight) Hermansen flopped and hasn’t been seen since.
And from Areola’s re-emergence as a top-tier shot stopper, Danish number two Mads Hermansen is suddenly looking surplus to requirements at London Stadium.
Not feeling the London Stadium Love right now: Mads Hermansen
Mads Hermansen unlikely to get first team football as Areola recovers top-tier form
Givemesport.com suggest he’s ready to leave in January in search of first team football. With the Frenchman back on top of his game as he demonstrated again yesterday, Hermansen isn’t likely to get opportunities to recover his form, so either a loan or outright sale beckons. GMS claim it’ll be the latter:
“West Ham brought in Mads Hermansen and paid a lot of money, and now it looks like he could be on the way as he’s not playing any football….[According to Clinton Morrison] the 25-year-old could be heading out of east London before we know it. Speaking on BBC 5 Live during the 2-0 loss against Liverpool on Sunday, Morrison said: “Alphonse Areola has made the jersey his own.”
Which would leave veteran Fabianski ,u21 ‘keeper Kristían Hegyi – along with England u21 international Finlay Herrick to battle it out as Areola’s understudy: Are any of the trio really ready for a prolonged Premier League campaign should Areola succumb to his long-standing back issue once again?
It’d be a disappointing end after so short a stay for the Dane. Hermansen is much, much better than the dismal first impression he created. The Hammers will probably be staring at another £7 million+ loss so more likely a summer move or loan beckons for the unhappy young ‘keeper.
Can we stop making binary comments that people are either exceptional or gone. Any chance that Hermanson’s arrival actually spurred Areola to be a better keeper as he had competition. Hermanson had and awful start but there is no value in selling him off cheap to just have to buy another keeper rather than spend more money on a stronger striker. We need to focus on the main problem for once!
As a coach Potter proved to be out of his depth at a club of our size.
However, Diouf, Magassa and Hernandez look as if they could be great long term signings. Hermansen is much better than his performances and Potter needs to bear the responsibility of chucking him in at the deepend when he was clearly not ready given his injury and lack of a preseason
Clearly he was not aware of his teammates Martin. His teammates were also not aware of him. Preseason, coaching and practice were all missing when Mads Hermansen was thrown into the team. Familiarity takes a lot longer than a weekend.
Just hope that the guy is not ruined by this experience and will prove to be the class ‘keeper to follow Alphonse Areola.
Potter was a disastrous appointment.
Absolutely clueless as a manager.
His decisions (along with the idiot that appointed him) will be the main reason we will be near the bottom this season
That and Lopetegui. They only got Moyes right because they got a second chance and then they still fecked it up by not backing him