Goalkeepers are a funny bunch. It’s not necessary for a goalkeeper to be a lunatic, a nutter, a headjob, but several examples of great goalkeepers seem to suggest that it helps. Schmeichel, Higuain, Chilavert, Lehmann, Kahn to name but a few were certainly characters to put it mildly. We’ve seen goalkeepers trying to bite opponents in the neck, saving shots by doing a scorpion kick on the goalline, spitting at opponents, being prone to sudden bursts of outrage or hair-raising blackouts resulting in embarrassing goals from throw ins, back passes or harmless shots slowly rolling through arms and legs turning a routine save into a scene repeated over and over again in football shows presenting football bloopers. It’s not easy being a goalkeeper.
With Adrian San Miguel del Castillo, or short Adrian for his friends, family and fans, we have a curious case, a late starter at his only club played at before West Ham, Betis Seville. He only made his first team debut two years ago at the ripe old age of 25 years. He had to come on because the starting goalie got himself sent off early on, the end result was a 0:4 loss. Two months later though came his Man of the Match performance against Real Madrid in a 1:0 win at which stage he had established himself as Betis Seville’s new number one. He kept eleven clean sheets to help his team qualify for the Europa League by finishing in seventh place, not a bad feat for a late bloomer. West Ham then managed to sign him up without having to pay a transfer fee to Betis. Adrian was merely supposed to be the understudy to Jaaskelainen, but again managed to make the number one, or rather number 13, shirt his own, wrestling the starting job away from the Finnish shotstopper.
With our team playing so well I’ve still read and heard in recent weeks and days even that Adrian was our weakest link, the one player potentially holding us back from challenging near the top of the league and maintaining that challenge for years to come. I have to disagree. Some were for instance unhappy with his performance against Liverpool where hot headed Adrian nearly managed to get himself sent off twice, first getting into a scrap with Balotelli and in the second half making a save by sliding with studs showing into Borini, catching the player in the stomach.
People also obviously were unhappy with Adrian flapping about with a Burnley corner, allowing them to score at a vital time in the match to keep things interesting.
Let me spell it out at this point: Adrian is not perfect in his performances at this stage, very few goalkeepers in the world are and if he was he wouldn’t be playing at West Ham at this stage of his career. But surely he has also shown us enough fantastic saves and blocks already, only as recently as the famous home win against Man City, to merit a lot of credit and praise. Add to that the fact how Adrian made all the right noises when he arrived, mentioning the tradition and history of our club, immediately striking up a relationship with the fans, praising them via his social media account time and time again, bringing over his dad and granddad for a game recently and you can see the man fitting right in at our cosy little family club.
I have to say that Adrian and his goalkeeping fill me with a lot of confidence in most situations on the pitch, including crosses, freekicks or cornerkicks. He fills me with more confidence actually than any other goalkeeper I’ve seen at West Ham so far, including players like Miklosko, Hislop, Walker, Green or Jaaskelainen.
I love his interaction with fans and obvious passion for the club and the game even if that may result in the odd sending off for him. The man cares. And the player Adrian will still only get better with more experience, he’s only 27 which is still infancy status for a goalkeeper, his peak should happen a few years from now, hopefully still at West Ham.
As I said he’s been at Betis before, now West Ham – and he strikes me as the loyal type so Adrian could end up being a two-club man if things keep going well.
Of course we need to replace Jussi and bring in a goalkeeper that will really challenge Adrian in training, day in day out. May I kindly point our club scouts towards Germany which has a history of producing great custodians between the sticks on a regular basis, up and down the country, even in Bundesliga 2. Competition for places is needed at every position at West Ham. What I don’t want to see happen is us bringing in an aging, already established goalkeeper to challenge Adrian.
West Ham simply don’t buy star players, we try to make them, develop them and I hope that’s exactly what we will do with a second goalkeeper.
As for Adrian I hope he is here for years to come, a West Ham legend in the making. For those who are still being critical towards Adrian’s overall quality let me finish with telling you about Walter Junghans, a name certainly unknown to most of you. He developed into a bit of a cult hero, hailing from Hamburg, later playing for Bayern Munich, Schalke and Hertha Berlin. This guy was Jekyll and Hyde with gloves. On any given day he would tip certain goals over the crossbar with his fingertips, making saves worthy of a World Cup Man of the Match award. The next week he would try to clear a back pass only to hit grass and air and concede a goal that would make a slighty overweight Sunday League goalie shudder with horror and embarrassment.
Yet said Walter Junghans had a 20 year long career, winning the European Championship in 1980 plus two Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich in 1980 and 1981 plus a German Cup in 1982. You don’t need a perfect goalkeeper to be successful, but one that fits into your team, gets on well with his teammates and is respected in the dressing room and in the stands at the same time.
As far as I can see Adrian ticks all those boxes. Adrian’s Wall should be a feature for the Hammers for the foreseeable future.