West Ham United have a goalkeeper conundrum this summer. Will Graham Potter stick with Areola or dip into the transfer market?

Graham Potter and head of recruitment Kyle Macauley have a lot to do this summer, as a significant number of players will leave and a decent number of new players will arrive. We know we’re in the market for central midfielders, a striker, and a central defender. But do we need a new first-team goalkeeper?

Lukasz Fabianski has left the club as a free agent, leaving Alphonse Areola and Wes Foderingham as the senior goalkeepers at the club. The latter is the third-choice goalkeeper and is in the squad only to play matches as a last resort. This means we need to sign another goalkeeper.

A big debate between West Ham fans at the moment is whether we need to sign a keeper to come in and start/challenge Areola, or sign a goalkeeper to be back-up and sit on the bench.

In my opinion, if possible, we should sign both a starter and a back-up and sell Alphonse Areola. The Frenchman is a brilliant shot stopper and has had some brilliant matches as a Hammer, but he just doesn’t have a future at the club with Graham Potter at the helm.

Like a lot of coaches now, Potter wants his goalkeeper to be able to play out of the back, and Areola just can’t do that. Not only is his short passing out of the back weak, his goalkicks aren’t great either, which means with Areols in goal, we will never be able to implement Potter’s style perfectly.

Many would say, why not keep Areola as number 2? And that wouldn’t be a bad idea if we can’t move him on. However, his massive wages mean it wouldn’t make any financial sense to keep him here. He has also been sporadically linked with a move to Saudi Arabia, so we could also get a decent transfer fee for him.

One problem with this would be the standard of goalkeepers we’ve been linked with so far. The biggest transfer rumours suggest we’re interested in Aaron Ramsdale and Robert Sanchez. Those aren’t names that fill me with hope, however, they would be an improvement on Areola when it comes to how Potter wants to play.

One name we’ve been sporadically linked with that would excite me as a West Ham fan is Đorđe Petrović of Chelsea. The Serbian looks set to be made available by the Blues this summer, despite being one of Ligue 1’s most impressive keepers last time out. He could be signed for around £15-20m, which could turn out to be a bargain for the Hammers.