West Ham United goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero admits he's set himself a personal target to see an academy goalkeeper make a first team debut with the Irons.
West Ham's commitment to the development of young goalkeepers was apparent this week as Krisztián Hegyi, who joined the Irons as an U18 shot-stopper in 2019, penned a new contract with the Club until 2025.
“When I first came here a few years ago, aside from taking charge of first-team goalkeeping as the first-team goalkeeping coach, I also looked at the last few years at West Ham," Valero told whufc.com. “We are the Academy Of Football and we have produced - and we keep producing - big players like Declan Rice, Ben Johnson and others, but we're still perhaps lacking developing a goalkeeper.
“From that, I felt that we should first put some effort into developing a proper goalkeeping department which works with the same ideas as the first team for the very young ages. It was important that the goalkeeping coaches can speak the same language and share the same principles of the game, and that will aid the development of our goalkeepers.
“Add into that good recruitment and working to sign the best possible goalkeepers for the Academy.
“That was the idea and I hope that, in a few years, we can talk of a goalkeeper that has come through the West Ham Academy and can be part of the first team squad, as a number one or two."
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