Darren Bent has suggested that West Ham United are stuck with Roberto, as reported by Football Insider.
What did he say?
Roberto did not have a good time of it while filling in for Lukasz Fabianski during his spell out injured or in the Carabao Cup.
Having conceded four against Oxford United, he went on to play in seven Premier League games, conceding 15 goals and failing to keep a clean sheet.
That period was heavily punctuated with calamitous errors, the biggest of which came when he punched the ball into his own net against Burnley.
Bent has suggested that there is very little chance of West Ham getting rid of him due to just how bad he was: “Yeah, it’s one of them where he’s in a position which is a bit of a killer because he’s number three now as he’s fluffed his line and cost West Ham games and points.
“Then at the same time as well, there’s not going to be many takers for him with him making that many mistakes, but to be fair to him, he’s well within his rights to sit there, why should he take a pay cut? They gave him the deal in the first place.
“Now it’s not going so well, they can’t say we need you to take a pay cut, it doesn’t work like that, as you could say if he was playing well, he deserves a pay rise.
“At the end of the day it hasn’t worked out for him and West Ham seem to be stuck with these sort of players.”
Hard to shift
Bent is correct, as it is very difficult to imagine that anybody would be coming in for a goalkeeper who made such bad errors with the regularity of Roberto.
It says a lot about his incompetence between the sticks that David Martin has kept two clean sheets in his four games since replacing the Spaniard, with both of those ending in wins.
Did he really play for us?! No West Ham fan has managed to name all of these obscure Irons signings….
Roberto didn’t manage to get a single league win for the Hammers and it seems highly unlikely that he will get the chance to any time soon.
The 33-year-old has now dropped down to third-choice, meaning he will likely be offering support to the pair that are ahead of him until his contract expires in the summer of 2021.
In other news, West Ham fans are excited by links with Premier League right-back.