One of West Ham’s longest serving current players is the much loved Robert Green, who has stuck with the club through thick and thin over the years. The consistent stopper has come back from a horrific World Cup with England to regain the trust of both club and country and is still regarded as one of the best around. Unfortunately the Hammers will be without their reliable ‘keeper for up to six weeks and so have brought in Arsenal’s experienced Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia on a month’s emergency loan, but should this be a move Big Sam should be looking to make permanent?
The 34-year-old kept goal for West Ham in the weekends 2-2 draw away at Crystal Palace and could be in goal for up to four more games on loan. The nature of rush to bring in Almunia may suggest that West Ham are extremely light in the goalkeeping department and shows they will need to bring in a full time player to act as cover for Green. When Green regains fitness Almunia will become second choice at West Ham and is possibly second or third choice at Arsenal so bringing him in full time would be a strange decision.
If Almunia does impress in his loan spell then the competition on Green for the No.1 shirt will grow but the Spaniard will not want to play second fiddle at a Championship club. However the Hammers do need to bolster their goalkeeping options in the near future as Sam Allardyce clearly feels the reserve goalkeeper Ruud Boffin is not good enough.
Almunia made some awful errors for Arsenal and if any of them occur at Upton Park it will not take long for the fans to wonder why Boffin was not given the chance. January is still around four months away to give Allardyce a chance to recruit a full time back up keeper for Green, and not make Amunia’s move across London a permanent one.
