Adrian admits he wishes the season was not coming to an end now that he has finally found his way back into Slaven Bilic’s graces.
The West Ham manager today confirmed that the club had exercised the option to hand Adrian a two year extension that will keep the goalkeeper at the London Stadium until 2019.
Having started the season as West Ham’s first-choice goalkeeper a string of poor displays saw Adrian lose his place in the side to Darren Randolph. The 30-year-old was only restored to Bilic’s starting lineup at the end of April but has since kept three clean sheets.
“Personally, I wish the season was not ending,” Adrian told the West Ham website. “It was not my thinking at the start of the season [that I would lose my place in the starting XI], but this is football and I’ve come back into the team in the last few games to help my teammates and to get some more points.
“We got three clean sheets in a row, so my comeback to the team was great for me to get more confidence and also to get the confidence of my teammates and the fans, who were helping me and supporting me.
“Of course I’m looking forward to playing in the last game, then we will think about the future.”
Adrian has not been the only Hammer to endure a notable drop off in form compared to last season, with West Ham likely bound for a finish in the bottom half of the Premier League.
In Pictures | West Ham vs Liverpool | 14/05/2017
Bilic admitted in his Standard Sport column West Ham had faced a “perfect storm” of moving to a new stadium, losing their star player Dimitri Payet and failing to integrate a host of new signings.
It was an opinion echoed by Adrian. “It has been a bad season for us and we have struggled for consistency but, at the end of the day, we want to finish as high as possible, in eleventh place. We need the three points to get this position.”
