It is fair to say this is not how Mads Hermansen imagined his start to life at West Ham United going, dropped from the starting XI and already facing an uncertain future at the Premier League outfit.
Hammers News reported last week that West Ham may ‘cash in’ on the Danish glovesman as early as January if given the opportunity to recoup much of that £18 million investment.
To think, when Mads Hermansen arrived from Leicester City at the beginning of August, he was supposed to nail down the number one jersey for years to come. Instead, four Premier League games and eleven concessions later, Alphonse Areola was back in the West Ham United XI.
Nuno Espirito Santo clearly prefers Areola and what he offers in terms of experience and physicality.
Though it would be wrong to claim the Hammers have fixed their set-piece issues, the 32-year-old Frenchman certainly commands his area far better than Hermansen, who tended to stay stock-still on his goalline when balls came fizzing into his vicinity.
It should also be said, though, that he is maybe a victim of circumstance too. Graham Potter and Casper Ankergren both pushed for Hermansen over a number of other options in the summer.
And less than two months after he put pen to paper, the Hammers dispensed with both their head coach and their lead first-team goalkeeping coach.
Mads Hermansen was hit hard by Casper Ankergren’s West Ham United exit
Now, speaking to Danish publication Campo, Hermansen has opened up for the first time on the disappointment of losing one of his biggest backers.
Though it was Potter who initially removed the 25-year-old from the firing line, it is hard to imagine that either he or Ankergren would have been willing to consider a January sale after just four appearances.
“Now I worked with him [Ankergren] at Brondby, so of course we already had a relationship,” Hermansen says, having spent two years alongside the ex-Leeds and Brighton goalkeeper at the Danish giants.
“We have always agreed a lot about the goalkeeping game and how we train and play matches.
“So it was clear that I was looking forward to working with him for a longer period of time and continuing to improve my skills. But unfortunately, things went the way they did.”
Ankergren would eventually be replaced by Rui Barbosa, a long-time confidante of Graham Potter’s successor. Nuno believes Hermansen will benefit from Barbosa’s arrival, the Portuguese having helped Matz Sels, John Ruddy and Rui Patricio produce arguably the best football of their careers at Nottingham Forest and Wolves respectively.
Hermansen, while still disappointed about the nature of Ankergren’s exit, insists he is fully on board with Nuno’s new set-up.
“We have, of course, a new coaching team, which I also think is really talented,” Hermansen adds. “And I am also happy to work with them.”
Unless Areola picks up an injury or a suspension for whatever reason, the FA Cup third round looks likely to be Hermansen’s best chance to redeem himself.
“I think Rui [Barbosa] can help us,” Nuno said a few weeks back. “He has a lot of experience. He has been working with me for many, many years, and he’s always been able to improve goalies.”
“I expect [Barbosa to have an] effect on Alphonse, on Mads, on Lukasz [Fabianski], on the young lad Finlay [Herrick]. I think it is going to be important for us.”
Speaking of Herrick, called up to the England Under-21s for the first time this week, big things are expected in East London. Another recently departed Hammers coach, Linus Kandolin, believes West Ham have an ‘unbelievable’ talent in the 19-year-old who recently returned from a loan spell at Boreham Wood.
“He’s unbelievably good on the ball, but he needs to challenge himself by commanding his area and defending the box,” Kandolin, who departed alongside Potter and Ankergren, told Goalkeeper.com.
“We try to see what goalkeepers are good at and where they need to improve. Every goalkeeper will have a different pathway, but our main objective was to put that time into individual improvement.”
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