The building rumours were a straight swap for Kettle for Gibson, and all has been confirmed, with the swap being made official. With Gibson already confirmed in June (neither will be physically
registered with their respective teams yet, without the window open!), a
straight swap of Kettle to HWHC makes sense given goalkeepers available for a move and interested. With Gibson's arrival, Kettle wouldn't really be wanting to give up his spot, so a straight swap means he becomes the 'go-to-guy' at Hampstead.
Options for Hampstead would be pretty limited as to goalkeepers interested in leaving clubs they are established at (can't see Tommy, Bailey or Smith wanting to move away, although Smith might consider a swap from EG) and with hockey being officially an amateur sport, players are restricted by commute, jobs and everyday life, so getting an almost straight swap of player ability and team commitment is important for them to build in time for the season starting.
With
his commitment to Wales and the increase in international training and practise games, some questions were raised over these
commitments, suggesting that it was wearing him down and affecting his match performance, given his slump in play (at least, from the top tier standard of goalkeeping we expect from
him). And this talk linked him with rumours of going back West perhaps to join Cardiff to be closer to the Welsh setup. But with working in London, I can't see that myself...
Regardless, it will be interesting to see how well Hampstead adapt to a changing squad sheet and how they will perform with the experience and capability of a 'custodian between the sticks' like Kettle.
No comments:
Post a Comment