When West Ham United spent £18 million luring Mads Hermansen away from Leicester City, the Premier League outfit hoped that their pursuit of a new number one was over for the time being.
Those hopes feel almost quaint now. Naive, even.
Hammers News reported this week, via chief football correspondent Graeme Bailey, that West Ham may even sell Hermansen as early as January should the opportunity arrive.
Even the Dane’s most vocal critics may consider that a little premature. But it is worth pointing out that the manager who signed him, and the coach who recommended him, have both departed the London Stadium already.
Hermansen worked with Casper Ankergren at Brondby in his native Denmark. The ex-Leicester ace was deemed a good fit for Potter, too, partly because of his qualities in possession. Now, Nuno Espirito Santo does not appear to put the same level of emphasis on a goalkeeper who can pass the ball as well as save it.
Nuno has selected Alphonse Areola over Hermansen ever since his appointment. Areola is not a traditional ‘ball-playing’ goalkeeper, far from it. Then again, the same could be said of Rui Patricio at Wolves and Matz Sels at Nottingham Forest.
So while a host of West Ham United supporters are hoping to see the club pounce on the uncertainty James Trafford faces at Manchester City, the Englishman’s impressive distribution is unlikely to be the first thing Nuno looks at if indeed he does appear on their radar.
Fortunately, Trafford is not only a terrific passer, but also a supreme shot-stopper. A penalty-saving expert, too.
West Ham United fans dream of Manchester City raid for James Trafford
According to the Manchester Evening News, Trafford’s eventual exit from the Etihad Stadium may be ‘inevitable’ already.
The £27 million signing from Burnley only returned to his maiden club in the summer. But after three Premier League starts, and one particularly bad afternoon against Tottenham, he was usurped by none other than Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Hermansen, then, is not the only expensively-acquired goalkeeper who may be on the move after only a few months. TEAMtalk report that Trafford, who is back in Newcastle’s sights, is ‘desperate’ to find a solution, perhaps as early as January.
His hopes of ousting Jordan Pickford as England’s number one before the World Cup were slim already, but pretty much invisible now.
Interestingly, talkSPORT’s Alex Crook claims that West Ham did hold an interest in Trafford before Man City blew their rivals out the water with the promise of a starring role at the club whose academy he graduated from. A promise they would break, only a few weeks later.
“Please, January!,” one Hammers fan writes on X in response to suggestions that Trafford may be available again in 2026.
“Would take him if we can offload Hermansen for some of the fee we paid for him,” another says, acknowledging the fact that West Ham would probably have to find a buyer for their £18 million benchwarmer first.
“Next summer.”
“Do whatever you can!”
“[Areola] has not been bad recently, but I’d take Trafford over Hermansen any day of the week.”
“Gotta to be January, if possible.”
“Him, [Charlie] Cresswell, and a striker,” one hopeful fan says, Trafford, a new centre-forward and the highly-rated Toulouse centre-back constituting something of a dream window.
Scott Parker called Trafford ‘world-class’ at Burnley
Trafford, famously, is not lacking in the self-belief department. He wholeheartedly agreed when Burnley manager Scott Parker labelled him a ‘world-class’ goalkeeper last season. He kept a record 29 clean sheets, including 12 in succession, as the Clarets racked up a century of points in the second-tier.
Yet, as confident as he may be, Trafford appears to know deep down that taking the gloves of the great Donnarumma is beyond even a goalkeeper of his rare talents.
“There’s no denying at the beginning of the season, the work we all had to do with Traff and where he was, there was a lot of work,” Parker told BBC Radio Lancashire of a 23-year-old who bounced back brilliantly from losing his place to Aro Muric towards the end of the Vincent Kompany era.
“He needed to engage in that. He needed to take a breath and take stock and decide where he wanted to be, and to be fair to him, I’ve seen someone mature. There’s no denying that he’s a world-class keeper.
“He’s just a top, top keeper.”
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