Roberto Gets Swift Spain Return

It has been confirmed today that goalkeeper Roberto Jiménez Gago has left West Ham United to join Spanish side Real Valladolid on a three-year contract.

The Spaniard played ten times for the Hammers as former manager Manuel Pellegrini favoured him over David Martin while first-choice stopper Łukasz Fabiański was sidelined due to a hip injury suffered during the first-half of the 2-2 draw against AFC Bournemouth at The Vitality Stadium last September. Unfortunately though, he went on to make a series of crucial mistakes which eventually caused the Chilean to drop him after playing eight straight games.

Pellegrini was sacked by the club’s hierarchy before the turn of the year and was swiftly replaced by David Moyes and the first move that the Scotsman made on his return to East London was to send him out on loan to Alavés.

It became clear that the former RCD Espanyol player didn’t have a future in Stratford after the return of Darren Randolph to the club: a move which dropped last season’s summer recruit further down the pecking order.