The international season recedes now and the Premier League takes centre stage again. But the ripples from international selection continue to spread outwards and West Ham United will have looked long and hard at the ramifications from some of their first choice players’ performances or selections for their respective countries.
In the case of France, the writing appears to be on the wall for Alphonse Areola as a first or even second choice goalkeeper: He has been relegated to number three for his country and displaced by both Mike Maignan and Brice Samba. Two issues here – for the player, is there any point at 31 years old in continuing to disrupt life, family and training to disappear for weeks at a time to be his countries’ third choice and just warm the bench?
And for West Ham – Areola’s performances this season have been tepid: Both as a shot-stopper with instances of being nutmegged or beaten at the near post, and as a goalkeeper/defender with poor distribution when playing from the back. Clearly it is not in Areola’s repertoire to play with his feet from the back, and this looks increasingly to have curtailed his international career – at just 5 caps – for France.
It looks to be heading the same way domestically. If reports coming out of Italy are anything to go by, there are suggestions that West Ham have again been watching Mile Svilar, having had him shortlisted last summer.
The 25 year old Roma ‘Keeper has a reputation as a great player with his feet – just what Lopetegui would ask for to develop his possession-based play-out-from-the-back philosophy. Svilar’s 80% pass rate in the Italian Serie A would be a massive upgrade- plus of course he is a pretty impressive shot stopper.
So, apart from the striker, the centre back and the left sided defender- oh and a Paquetá replacement – Steidten may have a goal keeping upgrade on his shopping list too.