West Ham have completed the £4m signing of Middlesbrough’s Darren Randolph after the goalkeeper passed further medical checks on his thigh injury.
Randolph has not played since 24th November failed a medical last week and a further scan was not able to dispel their fears. The 32-year-old travelled to London with Middlesbrough yesterday and is reported to have passed a further scan.
The Republic of Ireland international spent two seasons with the Hammers between 2015 and 2017 making 28 appearances before joining Boro in a £5m move in July 2017. The 32-year-old made 48 appearances for Middlesbrough in all competitions, proving himself as a reliable member of Tony Pulis’s squad.
The 32-year-old joins the Hammers on a three-and-a-half-year contract.
Randolph told WHUFC.com “I’m delighted to be back at West Ham United. I had two great years at the Club previously and still have a lot of friends here, so I had no hesitation in coming back,” he said. “West Ham is a massive club, with fantastic supporters and an excellent squad of players.
“It’s a great challenge for me and I am really looking forward to working with the goalkeepers here and helping the team in any way I can.
“I’d like to thank everyone at Middlesbrough – the management, staff, players and fans – for their support. I had a great time there and wish them all the very best for the rest of the season.
“This opportunity was simply too good to turn down, though. It’s a great feeling to be back in the Premier League with such a fantastic club, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Great. Now for the other 4 or 5 players we need.
We have resigned a keeper who was average at best for us and now he is prone to injury. A great example of one of the reasons I did not want Moyes in the first place. A lack of imagination signing, absolutely pathetic and the manager and owners are no longer in alignment with the fans. It is time to protest now which I have never done before. We either try to sign players who everyone else is after or we sign “has been” none of the top clubs want. Everything about our recruitment is wrong and it is the number 1 reason why we have not progressed. The owners are fully accountable. If the club believe this signing is going to build the relationship with the fans then they are more pathetic than even I thought they were.
I personally thought he was ok when he was here before so as a back up to fabianski i think it’s a good signing.
I actually agree, I think Randy Randolph is a good keeper who when fit is a steady pair of gloves at the back. I just hope he is fit enough.
Ditto Hammer_Rite
At least we have that position covered.
Still time to sign more before the window closes.
I think as back up he cando a job , but as for other business its pretty pathetic…but it is most seasons so I’m used to it .
There is a good chance that we could go down this year and I don’t think there will be much sympathy around for our owners…I hope not but if it does happen I think there will be major trouble…
Welcome back but what a joke. Get rid of Adrian for free then sign Randolph for four mill. Can’t see Fabianski being match fit to often. He will be 35 by the end of the season. Should splash some proper cash on a number one for the future. Same Old West Ham papering over the cracks.
Darren was good for us and has done well on the international stage. However, like others, I have low expectations of him staying fit. He’s a better bet than Roberto but we should keep looking.
Next level signing !!
For me , it’s a reasonable sighning . He wasn’t at all as bad as some fans would have you believe . Tell me he is worse than Roberto & Martin and then maybe there is an arguement .
He is an ok Keeper ., better than a fit Roberto or Martin ,,, so stop complaining every time West Ham try to do something .
Reckon it’s time for a lot of fans to wake up to the fact that we are still in the Premiership despite the disruptive attitude of many . And I wish Moyes every bit of luck he can get .
What he obviously lacks is the support to do well by some . As a fan and life long supporter of West Ham United that is the only way forward . It seems the Board in general can’t say anything right to make people happy . Get over it ; we left Upton Park with a dream for the future and if the fans don’t get on the train then they will miss the next stop .
Support your Club FFS . It will all come out in the wash eventually . What we can’t and dare’nt do is let our best players go ,,,, that has to be a massive no no no . So Phuck off Man Utd . Recall Diangana and Phuck West Brom as well . It should be all about us and not the others .
We have all standards, some people are happy with a certain standard, others are not. Have a look at twitter to see the reaction to this signing will tell you what the fans think. If you are happy with signing players like Randolph hen that is your right but don’t start preaching to the rest of us about supporting our club when that is all we do. We have the right as fans to speak out. The club is in our hearts and minds each day but not the owners and certainly not this manager. With signings like this they need to go asap.
God save us from bloody Twotter LOL
Well said plastic fans might be happy with mediocre the majority aren’t we support the best club in the country now it’s about time the club deliver on the promises they made
Next level…. How about resigning Andy Carroll.
3 1/2 Yr contract for an average 32 year old keeper who hasn’t played since late November… WILL WE EVER LEARN. Will be good back up in the Championship…. Heaven help us…
Owners, board out…. Where is the box to box midfielder who we desperately need….
Carroll, Wilshere, Antonio… now Randolph. In safe hands….. I doubt it… Moyes signing…. Hope not…
Perfectly sensible signing for a back up position and keeping seat warm for one of our own Nathan Trott!
Sceptical about paying for big money signings in January. Even the so called big boys are reluctant to do much more than loans.
At least it’s not the much vaunted Pellegrini etc doing the business. I wonder how many of those ranting about the board now applauded that signing. Seem to remember the Board caved into fan protest pressure to get him and spend a shed load on his recommendations!!
I think it’s a good signing … fingers crossed he be ok
I think that Kevin has spoken a lot of sense (and others too). A backup keeper was desperately needed and now we have one. Let us see who we sign in the remainder of the window (and I am still hoping for an energetic box to box midfielder) and then let us see how they perform before passing judgement
I remember under John Lyall we tried to sign Kerry Dixon but he wasn’t interested so we signed Leroy Rosenior and he scored the goals that kept us up – in particular a brace against Chelsea – so perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to judge
Hands up anyone who before seeing them play thought that McAvennie and Mark Ward were good signings
Fan base still in meltdown. Johnham, is you are relying on twitter as your source for a reasoned argument then I worry for you!
All the haters, please try and employ your rational brain for at least a second and look at the position as whole. Here goes:
Pellegrini sold Adrian – Pellegrini sold him, not the board or Karen Brady. Pellegrini and Husillos then chose Roberto to replace him. They blame for that and his incompetence lies with their incompetence in selling Adrian and signing him as a replacement.
The players have no confidence in Roberto so you cannot rely on him in any sense and his presence undermines everything you want in a team.
So to fix that, they have signed a reliable keeper who is likely trusted by his teammates.
Problem solved.
Now let’s hope they continue in that mould and Moyes continues to address the imbalance in the playing squad created and left by Pellegrini and Husillos
Twitter may not be a sensible place to have a meaningful conversation, but you can get a good feel for the general mood of the fans, which hiding in C&H comments doesn’t do. This is a generally pro-board site (Sean by his own admission, perhaps Hugh just past centre), and we’re a majority anti current board fan base.
Personally i don’t think the signing is a bad one as a back up keeper, I prefer Randolph to the other two and also over Adrian.
However, if a manager previously deemed surplus to requirements, signs a 32 yo player previously deemed surplus to requirements on a 42 month deal, then you can expect some flack.
If that player is injured and brought in to replace another injured player then perhaps more. If you do it at the same time as Spurs are signing a supposed wonder kid who the fans thought was signing for us, when we sit 1 point above the danger zone and 3 days before a potential protest…. then you’re kinda asking for trouble 🙂
Yest as a ro board apparently we are the only site to post a statement from the protesters. I support the baord because they are the onlu board and were there another take over we would support them to. It’s part of being a supporter
I am sure Randolph can be a perfectly adequate #2 keeper if he stays fit. But this story shows the lack of long term planning in this club. If he was good enough, why was he kicked out/allowed to leave in the first place? If we now need a keeper because whoever chose Roberto was clueless, aren’t there any younger, reliable keepers out there? I can think of a few across Europe that are fit, younger and would be OK as a #2 keeper.
The return of Moyes and Randolph is a symptom of confusion and lack of a long term vision at the Board level. It reminds me of those people who marry someone, divorce them after a few years, and re-marry them again a couple of years later. If you know what you want and where you are going, you don’t end up going around in circles.
Quite often when a 2nd keeper becomes too good for 2nd place, and cant get first team football, he wants to move on to play more games.
You have to think when he join us he just forced his way in to the international team, he needed to keep playing to cement his place.
HAMMER JK Adrian was not sold by Pellergrini he was out of contract .it is reported that he was offered a new one which he declined as he didn’t want to be a bench warmer..it was only by chance that he ended up at Liverpool as he was about to sign for a Spanish club (name excape me at the moment ) Liverpool came knocking and to be fair can you blame him for grabbing the opportunity there and he took his chance to shine ever since he got called into first team action..great professional imho
Wat a joke wats the average age of our goalkeepers now wat a joke of a signing no imagination and a waste of limited funds we had the only other hasbin we will sign will be Joe allen another waste of money wat happened to following the RB Leipzig model Moyes ur a joke and a fraud we will be in the championship next season and for the foreseeable future under current owners and current manager like most fans that aren’t plastic fans and think were doing ok I think this club is run like a circus and by clowns I’ve had anoth now were trying to loan players we have no chance of getting just so the board can say oh but we tryed our squad is paper thin with aload of mid table championship players at best so let’s look forward to championship obscurity for the next ten years fighting relegation there as most of our pre madonna’s will not want to play in the championship as not one of them have an ounce of fight between them which has been proven this season if we go down hopefully they will sell up new owners will get eddie howe and he can clear the dead wood and fraudsters who claim they can play football and build from scratch but I think that is wishful thinking but I think i will have to live with waking up in this nightmare every day its horrifying to think of another 10 years of this but west ham is my life and I will support u irons till my last breath