WILLY Caballero admitted “I don’t know, but it’s good to hear your manager speaking well” when asked what he had done to make Ralph Hasenhuttl such a big fan of his, soon after arriving at Saints. The Austrian boss was immediately impressed with the back-up goalkeeper, who signed for the club on an emergency short-term deal as cover for absent Alex McCarthy and Fraser Forster in December. So much so, Hasenhuttl revealed that he convinced the 40-year-old Argentine to stay at Saints for the rest of the season,
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “Willy is a fantastic character who has freshened up our goalkeeper group massively.”
Caballero made two appearances in the Premier League during the initial one-month stay, going on to start in the FA Cup fourth and fifth rounds too. Asked by the Daily Echo why he thinks Hasenhuttl has had such a strong affinity with him,
Willy Caballero said: “I don’t know, it is good to hear that and to listen that your manager has been speaking well of you. I can only say that I arrived with a lot of energy and desire, not because of my situation because I am that, very positive, but also because I believe in a way of training, a way to achieve. Everything I have achieved in the past was with hard work and strong mentality, I started to be myself since I arrived here and maybe it’s about that the manager speaks that way. He’s a really good manager, very passionate and he shows this every training, every video after a game in the debrief on what we can improve, what we can do better, how we can win the next game. The philosophy of training is also really good. Of course, we didn’t win the last couple of games but we were doing really well for a period of time, a lot of games where we got points against fantastic teams and that is because we are training very hard and we improve a lot of things. Hopefully they are back soon because we need it.”
Caballero got the call from Saints goalkeeping coach Andrew Sparkes, after seeing McCarthy injured in the bizarre draw with Brighton at St Mary’s. He had been training with League One side AFC Wimbledon throughout the season to stay fit and ready for when the next opportunity presented itself. However, the decorated former Malaga, Manchester City and Chelsea stopper did not think it would come again at the level it did.
Willy Cabalero said: “Honestly I did not imagine this opportunity but I did imagine other opportunities. That was finding a proper team and showing what I can do. To be honest with you, because I couldn’t find a team in the summer when I left Chelsea I didn’t think (there would be) a chance to go to a Premier League team, because I was four or five months a free agent. So I was looking for a Championship team or something like that, but maybe because I didn’t lose a day of training God gave me this opportunity, this gift. To be here right now is fantastic, after all the time I spent without a team, and I am enjoying every second.”
