Where now for West Ham's Ruud Boy?

With the signing of Stephen Henderson, the future doesn't look bright for reserve keeper Ruud Boffin. When he made his erratic debut, West Ham fans fell over themselves to hail him a hero and a great prospect, but I argued otherwise. Back in 2010 I wrote:

"Boffin made one good save from a Pedersen free kick. It wasn't that testing because the Boffmeister manager to catch it two handed. It was a great showboating save, with the Belgian leaping like the proverbial salmon, but Pedersen clearly did not catch it right, otherwise catching it would have been the last thing in Boff's mind.


From another free kick, absurdly conceded by Gabbidon, Boffin took up a terrible position. Pedersen hit that one too well, getting great pace on the ball but insufficient bend. The ball zipped wide of the far post but had it been on target, the Boff's despairing right hand would have been a good yard away from the ball. One of Green's weaknesses is his positioning for direct free kicks and Boffin, despite his name, does not seem to have been reading the text books either.

Green's biggest weakness is when the ball is crossed into the box, but the Boffmeister made Robbie look like a master. He came for three crosses, missed two and flapped at one, failing to clear the box with his punch. The goal came from a cross into our six yard box and Boffin remained rooted to his line. True he saved the first effort but surely he should have taken the cross in the first place or punched it clear. One poster is trying to blame Ben Haim for the goal but Boffin could have dealt with the cross, and Barrera should not have lost possession trying to dribble from the corner flag, which created the opportunity for the cross in the first place.

Green is also a poor kicker and so is Boff. He has an "interesting" style when kicking from hand, kicking flat with a weird twisted body action, and seems to have little control over where the ball is heading. One kick went, at pace, directly into touch about 15 yards from our box!

But Boff's starring moment was when he dawdled on the ball and was forced to dribble round Benjani. He pulled it off - just, because Benjani so nearly blocked the clearance with a sliding tackle - but he really shouldn't have put himself in the position in the first place!

I rated the guy 4 and I reckon that was about right based on the evidence. Had Green played like that, the critics would have had a field day! But Boffin looks unusual, is a character and has a great name for the headline writers. In a drab match, he was solid gold for the sub editors tasked with producing an interesting sounding report.

But did he really play well? Ask the real goalkeeping boffins and they will say no!"

Where will Boffin go now? Montano is off to Oxford so perhaps the Boff will keep him company? Or maybe back to Belgium perhaps? One thing's for sure, Allardyce doesn't rate him. Dear God, he sees Lansbury as a better bet for the substitute keeper role!