Michail Antonio shares ‘unbelievable’ verdict on Lukasz Fabianski losing West Ham United first-team place
Michail Antonio believes Lukasz Fabianski could have still been the number one at West Ham this season after losing his place to Alphonse Areola.
Speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast on Thursday (12 October), the 33-year-old said the Polish keeper has been “unbelievable” for the past four or five years.
The Jamaican international added that the decision by David Moyes to play 30-year-old Areola ahead of his 38-year-old teammate hasn’t been talked about as much because they aren’t at Arsenal when comparing the situation to Aaron Ramsdale being dropped for David Raya at the Emirates recently.
“It’s not been in the spotlight, but at West Ham right now we’ve got Alphonse Areola in goal,” said Antonio. “For the past four or five years, Lukasz Fabianski has been unbelievable. He has pulled us out of some unbelievable situations and he has been unreal.
“But at the beginning of this season, the gaffer made Alphonse number one this year. It’s because he’s not at Arsenal why it’s not been talked about so much.
“Literally Lucasz has been unbelievable and he could easily have been our number one this year. We know if anything ever happens to Alphonse that we’ve got Lucasz and we aren’t worried.”
Makes sense
It has made complete sense for Areola to become the number one at West Ham after impressing for the club in the cup competitions over the past few years.
It was always expected that the keeper would take over from Fabianski eventually and, from his point of view, he perhaps felt it may have come earlier.
The Frenchman is now into his 30s himself, so he was probably thinking he had to start playing regular first-team football or consider leaving the London Stadium.
While Fabianski has been a consistent performer over a number of years, he isn’t getting any younger and the Hammers simply had to approach this situation with an eye on the future.
He will still get plenty of opportunities to impress in the cup due to the Irons being in Europe again and there is nothing to suggest he couldn’t earn his place back at some point.
In other West Ham news, Ferdinand has labelled a decision regarding a Hammers star as “crazy”.