After Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Newcastle United, West Ham are staring down the barrel of Premier League relegation. If they are to secure an immediate return to the top tier of English football, a new starting goalkeeper will be needed.
Dropped by Graham Potter after an ‘awful’ start to the campaign, the Danish goalkeeper was handed a second chance by Nuno Espirito Santo in late January and responded with genuine conviction.
Since Nuno restored him to the starting eleven, Hermansen has helped the Hammers keep six clean sheets, earning himself a first senior Denmark call-up in the process. It is a commendable personal turnaround and one that deserves acknowledgement.
However, if West Ham are relegated — and that remains a real possibility as the season enters its final matchday — they cannot afford sentimentality. An immediate return to the Premier League must be the only objective, and pursuing it with Hermansen as their number one would be a mistake.
The Championship is an unforgiving environment that exposes any weakness in a squad immediately. Clubs that win automatic promotion almost universally do so with a goalkeeper who commands their penalty area, organises their defence and wins points independently through individual quality.
West Ham spent £18 million on Hermansen last summer. That investment need not be written off — he could still develop into the goalkeeper his admirers believe he will become — but with an immediate Premier League return the only acceptable outcome of any relegation, the Hammers cannot wait for that potential to be fulfilled.
They need certainty. They need a goalkeeper who makes the number one shirt his own from the first day of pre-season and does not relinquish it. On the evidence of this season, Hermansen is not yet that player.