This article is part of Football FanCast's Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba's haircuts to League Two relegation battles...

Crystal Palace Sporting Director Dougie Freedman isn't a hugely popular figure at Selhurst Park.

Supporters on Twitter weren't too fussed when news broke that the Scot may possibly vacate his role at Selhurst Park to become the new Hearts manager - some fans within that piece had some critical words for him - and the former Eagles striker hasn't really overseen too many pieces of transfer genius since stepping into his current occupation.

However, there is one deal that he deserves enormous credit for due to the player's quite brilliant levels of consistency.

Back in January 2018, Freedman worked to negotiate the pre-contract arrival of Vicente Guaita from La Liga side Getafe, who would become a Crystal Palace player the following summer.

The move seemed relatively low key at the time - the Spaniard was little-known in England and the Eagles already had Julian Speroni and Wayne Hennessey battling it out for the No.1 shirt.

However, since Guaita has established himself under Roy Hodgson, the 32-year-old's performance levels have been quite ridiculous.

The glovesman performed a heroic fingertip save against Burnley last week, and was also named as the club's Player of the Month for November - Guaita's clean sheet against Bournemouth last time out was his fifth of the Premier League campaign in 13 appearances, in which time he has conceded only 14 goals with four of them coming in one anomaly of an affair against Tottenham.

In total, the Spanish stopper has kept 12 clean sheets in 33 Premier League appearances, making zero errors leading to goals while also being on the winning side in 16 of those outings.

Despite having limited English skills when he arrived, Guaita's calmness and ability to never look nervous in between the sticks evokes confidence in any defender standing before him in the backline - you only need to watch the 2-2 draw against Arsenal from a few weeks ago, where Hennessey stood in, to see how shaky the defence is without Guaita.

Freedman does get some stick from time to time from the Selhurst Park faithful, although his capture of Guaita deserves enormous credit in a day and age where goalkeepers such as Alisson and Kepa Arrizabalaga merit extortionate fees.

In other Crystal Palace news, one player recently sent a message to Hodgson with his stunning performance against Burnley...