West Ham's Fight Against Relegation: Finding Hope in Unity

"You can see your career slipping away, and the threat of relegation is looming. It's a tough emotional burden for the team and the club to bear." Mads Hermansen reflects on the painful experience of Premier League relegation with Leicester City last season, an experience he hopes to avoid with West Ham. The goalkeeper openly discusses the pressure and strain of being at the bottom of the Premier League. However, he says he has learned valuable lessons from last season, and after West Ham's decisive 4-0 victory over Wolves, which put their survival in their own hands, there is cautious optimism that the team's unity can help them avoid the same fate as Leicester. "We've been in this struggle for months," Hermansen says about West Ham's season. "The fear of what might happen is not easy to overcome, but credit to everyone at the club for keeping spirits high and making us believe we can turn things around." West Ham moved out of the relegation zone for the first time in a month with the win over Wolves. However, this battle for survival appears likely to go down to the wire, with London rivals Tottenham, as well as Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, not yet safe. If West Ham are to stay up, Hermansen believes their unity will be crucial. "Our togetherness, the relationships between us," he says, when asked about the team's strengths. "Every single person brings their personality to the team, and we have many great characters here who are willing to give everything for the club." It has been a season where Denmark international Hermansen has had to show personal resilience as well. The highly-rated 25-year-old was signed last summer to be West Ham's No 1, but after just four Premier League games, in which the team conceded 11 goals, he was dropped for Alphonse Areola. He didn't play again until a FA Cup win over QPR in January and had to wait until February 7 at Burnley for a Premier League comeback. But since his return, he has made more saves than any other Premier League goalkeeper and kept four clean sheets in eight matches. "I wanted to prove to my teammates, the club, and the fans that they made the right decision in signing me, and of course, the initial performances were not what I had hoped for," says Hermansen, reflecting on his difficult start. "I'm just happy I got another chance to show what I can do." Hermansen says he is "proud" of how he used his time out of the team to improve his game so he was ready when needed. "It was a tough time, but I also got the chance to show what I'm made of and how hard I can work over a longer period," he said. "I proved to myself what I can really do when things get tough. "I'm proud of the work I did during that period, and to be able to bring it to the pitch, and together with the team, have some great performances and results, has been really nice." What areas of his game did he focus on? "I'm quite an emotional guy, and when things get emotional, I try to ask myself how I can separate the emotional aspect from the football part of my life, and just focus on doing my job and giving it my all, so every night when I go to bed, I can say to myself, I did everything I could to improve and show myself in the best way possible. "The questions I had to ask myself during that period, I've really learned to carry with me now when I'm playing, which has helped me a lot. "It's easy to say that coming out of a tough period was good for me, but I really have learned a lot from it." Hermansen, like West Ham, has come back stronger for the run-in. But he and his teammates are well aware the job isn't done yet. "We believe a lot in ourselves," he said. "It's going to get tough, but we believe we have a lot to give."