Emile Heskey wonders if Seny Dieng may be better off staying at Queens Park Rangers rather than competing with Lukasz Fabianski for a starting place at West Ham United, speaking exclusively to HITC.
After a series of seemingly never-ending loan spells, at Whitehawk, Hampton and Richmond, Stevenage, Dundee and Doncaster, Dieng has finally, finally established himself as QPR’s number one.
Having never made a league appearance for Rangers before September 2020, the late-blooming Senegal international has now started 35 out of the last 36 Championship games, impressing with his cat-like reflexes and supreme self-confidence.
So why would Dieng give all that up to sit on the bench at West Ham?
The Sun (11 April, page 67) reports that David Moyes’ Hammers are lining up a summer bid. But, with the ink still drying on Fabianski’s new one-year contract, it’s worth remembering that the grass is not always greener elsewhere.
“Do you back yourself as a player? Or do you stay where you are until you know that you’re in a position to demand (a starting place)?” asks Heskey, the former England and Liverpool striker.
“If you wait and wait and wait and wait (on the bench at a big club), you end up missing six months to a year where you could have been playing.
“When you’re talking goalkeepers, (Dieng) is fairly young. And when you’ve been a regular all this time, why would you give up that to be at a bigger club, or be on more money?
“Play the games, get the love of it, get more experience, and then you can probably pick and choose which club you go to then.”
Fabianski will turn 36 later this month.
But while the Pole is no spring chicken, he remains as reliable as ever between the sticks at a West Ham side dreaming of a place in the Champions League group stages.
“When you’re on the coaching staff, you know what your players are all about. If you’re looking at him in training and he’s still showing the signs that he’s at the top of his game… and goalkeepers are totally different because they can play until they’re 42!” Heskey adds.
“As long as Fabianski is showing that desire to really work hard in training, if he’s mentally switched-on and still sharp, I don’t see why he can’t still be number one.”
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