Confirmed: West Ham summer signing leaves Irons in loan move
West Ham United confirmed on Monday afternoon that goalkeeper Roberto has left the club on loan to join Alaves until the end of the season.
It will have surprised no Hammers fans given the severity of the Spaniard’s struggles in the Premier League after a catalogue of errors at the London Stadium.
David Moyes has already secured the signing of Darren Randolph, and his performance against Everton on Saturday would have been the final nail in the coffin for his fellow stopper in East London.
West Ham confirmed the news on their official website alongside a short statement. Moyes will now look elsewhere, with Football Insider reporting that the Irons expect a late blizzard of arrivals.
It is no shock that Roberto has already left the club despite only joining in the summer. The 33-year-old made too many errors, and even simple stats such as his passing were nowhere near good enough.
The Spaniard averaged 25.4 passes per game in the Premier League and had a shocking success rate of 42.4% [WhoScored].
You do have to consider long balls, but he only completed 6.1 per game – meaning that 19 others were short in terms of distribution, not good enough.
The injured Lukasz Fabianski is expected to be back available at the end of January after early fears surrounding his hip problem were thrown out.
That means that the likes of Randolph and David Martin will be back as squad players, meaning that Roberto had little to no chance of making it to the top of that chain once again.
In other West Ham United news, Report shares how many positions West Ham wish to strengthen in January