Veteran keeper attempts to stave off competition from club’s new signing. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
I’m not overly comfortable with drawing comparisons with my least favourite team, however I couldn’t help it when I thought of the situation.
Adrian San Miguel Del Castillo, or simply Adrian as he is more commonly known, has joined and, I would imagine, fully intending to be the club’s new number 1, just as was Hugo Lloris 12 months ago.
However, Andre Villas-Boas, having warned his new signing that he would not ‘simply walk in to the first team’, stuck to his guns and Lloris had to wait until October 7th to make his league debut, instead featuring only in Europa League and Capital One Cup games.
Despite Adrian not having quite the same reputation or price tag to match that of Lloris, Sam Allardyce is faced with a similar dilemma; stick with the old or plump for the new.
Having spent six seasons in Real Betis’ B team – the Reserves, or better still, the Development Squad as we know it – before finally getting his chance in their first team during the early part of last season, you certainly couldn’t accuse the Andalusian of lacking patience.
It seems it was the worth the wait as what followed was a run of 31 consecutive games culminating in a 7th placed finish and a place in this season’s Europa League for his previous employers.
Now that would do nicely, thank you very much.
My feeling is that, given the way Jussi Jaaskelainen finished last season – winning me over in the process – patience may well be the key again for the new boy before he gets his chance and, although there is probably not quite the clear cut inevitably that faced that of Brad Friedel, if Jussi starts this season in a similar fashion to last then San Miguel could well be on the menu for West Ham fans sooner rather than later.
Do you agree that Adrian may have to wait for Jaaskelainen to lose form? Or do you think he should go straight in as West Ham’s first choice keeper? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
