West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola gets his big answer and it could have a domino effect on plans

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West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola gets his big answer and it could have a domino effect on plans.

Alphonse Areola was meant to be West Ham’s number goalkeeper last season.

That was the succession plan David Moyes had put in place when making the 6ft 5in Frenchman’s loan move from PSG permanent.

But Lukasz Fabianski was so good and so consistent that Areola was left frustrated as number two for the Premier League campaign.

Thankfully West Ham enjoyed another long European adventure which saw the Hammers go on and win the Europa Conference League with Areola the first choice for that competition.

They say there is no smoke without fire and in January – with the France number one spot up for grabs following the retirement of Hugo Lloris – L’Equipe claimed Areola was looking to leave West Ham on loan to be number one elsewhere.

That speculation has not gone away. Claret and Hugh, who have close links with Hammers co-owner David Sullivan, recently suggested that if Lukasz Fabianski is offered a new deal as expected, then Areola may well leave the London Stadium this summer.

Areola’s big motivation was to make the France number one spot his own following a decade as a back-up option to Lloris.

Now West Ham goalkeeper Areola gets his big answer and it could have a domino effect on plans.

Because Didier Deschamps has made the Hammers star’s France future perfectly clear.

Areola was named in France’s squad for Euro 2024 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Greece.

But he appears to have been demoted to France’s number three. Because Brice Samba started in the win over Gibraltar when number one Mike Maignan was unavailable.

And when the AC Milan ‘keeper returned for the game against Greece last night, he went straight into the side ahead of Areola, who was left on the bench for both games.

Whether the situation gives Areola extra motivation to push for a move away from West Ham this summer if he is going to remain number two behind Fabianski remains to be seen.

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