West Ham United goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has seemingly just made a quite astonishing U-turn.
Lukasz Fabianski joined West Ham from Swansea City for around £7 million way back in the summer of 2018, and he was the club’s number one goalkeeper right up until the start of this season.
Alphonse Areola joined the Hammers on loan in the summer of 2021, before making a permanent move to the London Stadium a year later.
However, David Moyes resisted the temptation to throw the French World Cup winner straight into the team, and waited a full two years before he made Areola, 31, our number one stopper.
In fairness to Fab, he has been extremely dependable for us over the past six years.
In 194 games for West Ham, the Pole has conceded 251 goals and has kept 51 clean sheets in the process (Transfermarkt).
He is a very popular figure at the London Stadium, and despite his clear and obvious regression over the past 12 months or so, he’s still an able deputy for Areola.
Now it seems like Fabianski has made a very big U-turn indeed on his current situation at West Ham…
West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski makes U-turn
Fabianski has reclaimed a starting spot in Moyes XI over the past couple of weeks, after Areola suffered an injury during our 4-3 defeat to Newcastle 13 days ago.
The 38-year-old has been a super reliable performer for the Hammers and his teammate Michail Antonio recently raved about the stopper, labelling him as ‘unreal’.
However, Fab has had to make do with being the understudy to Areola on the most part this season.
And it was only eight months ago when the former Swansea City and Arsenal man hit the headlines with his extremely unprofessional comments after being demoted to the Hammers’ number two stopper:
“I took the news awfully. Being honest, first of all, it was a massive shock. Second of all, the information made me angry. I wasn’t mentally ready for something like this. The way the situation was handled feels weird to me. As you can probably feel my pain, all I will say is that through my work with the club, the coaching staff and the manager I deserved the situation to unfold in a much different way than how it happened and on Thursday. I know it’s just my subjective opinion, but I feel like I should’ve been treated better in that specific situation.”
However, now he has told WHUFC.com how he is simply grateful for any opportunity that comes his way now:
“I’m enjoying every game, and every opportunity that’s given to me. Things have obviously been a bit different for me this season, and I’ve had to adjust to that. I wouldn’t say there’s been much difference in terms of the playing side of things, because every game is a challenge, but I’ve had to keep myself ready and stay prepared to jump in when called upon. I’m always excited to play in any game, and for the majority of this season that’s been in the cups, so I’m definitely enjoying the return of the UEFA Europa League. The Club has enjoyed some really special nights in these competitions in recent years, so it’s exciting to play my part now.”
Wow, that’s quite the turnaround from the stance that he adopted on his situation back in the summer.
I assume that Moyes and the Hammers hierarchy had a word in the goalkeeper’s ear in August, after he broke rank and basically told the world that he thought he’d been unfairly dropped.
Because you couldn’t get a set of more contrasting comments than what the 38-year-old has just served up.
Lukasz Fabianski still has a key role to play for West Ham this season, especially with Areola currently out with a groin problem.
However, I’m not so sure that his future will be at the London Stadium beyond the end of this current campaign.
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