Last night, when I wrote the initial rumors by Matteo Moretto about West Ham negotiating with Tottenham Hotspur to bring in Antonin Kinsky on loan, I was skeptical that an Italian journalist would have the goods on this, considering there are no actual Italians involved in this move. Well, I maintain that skepticism, but it now looks like this is a real and distinct possibility.
The Athletic is now reporting that West Ham are increasingly confident that they can bring Kinsky in on a straight loan to the end of the season, reportedly with a purchase option. Kinsky would effectively come in to serve as Alphonse Areola’s primary backup, replacing Mads Hermansen, who started off as West Ham’s #1 under Graham Potter but was dropped for Areola after six matches.
This would also dovetail nicely with another, more specious rumor making the rounds that Spurs are looking at the possibility of bringing in 32-year-old Wolves reserve keeper Sam Johnstone, ostensibly to replace Kinsky. I won’t link to those rumors as they’re not great sources (yet) but they’re out there if you want to find them.
There’s a lot going on here, and none of them would dramatically improve Tottenham’s football club so you kind of wonder why we’re going through all of this fuss over our backup keeper. But there is actually a decent rationale — if Kinsky, a Czech national, isn’t up to snuff at Spurs, it would make a ton of sense to bring in someone like Johnstone, a veteran and most importantly an association trained English keeper to serve as Spurs’ backup for Champions League squad construction purposes. It’s not a lot different than when Spurs brought in Fraser Forster for that exact role, except that Spurs got bitten when Guglielmo Vicario got injured last season and Forster was forced into playing a lot of minutes that we would’ve preferred he not play. Like with Forster, I’m not convinced Sam Johnstone is especially GOOD, but he’s almost certainly serviceable and sometimes when it comes to your backup keeper serviceable and English can override someone who can actually push the starter for minutes.
So I guess it would make sense, if we assume that a) Kinsky isn’t the backup keeper we want right now, b) West Ham are willing to make the move, and c) Spurs can bring in an English veteran this spring. Anyway, it at least appears to be a thing not confined to Italian Bat Country.