Manager’s policy on shotstoppers is flawed
There are many questions relating to the lack of a goalkeeping signing that fans are probably asking. Why Mark Schwarzer? If Fulham were demanding too much for him, if, as seemed apparent at least a month ago, that this transfer was running into difficulties. So why did the manager not turn to other targets?
The answer, almost certainly, is that there were no other targets that fitted Wenger’s flawed vision of trying to develop a winning team from youngsters.
Schwarzer, a good Premiership keeper who is past his prime, was nothing more than a stopgap keeper who would not threaten his youngsters and to keep the shirt warm for when (if?) one of his young keepers become good enough. Rather than sign a high quality number one, at or near his peak and then if the youngster is good enough make him number one (like Joe Hart at Manchester City) , Wenger is going on the hope and expectation that they will make the grade, so he can keep to his flawed dream.
This is a high risk policy with a low chance of success, especially with Wenger’s way of developing goalkeepers, i.e. practice on the training pitch and little match practice, rather than the traditional method of getting them to play lots of competitive games. Let’s remember that Fabianski was considered, when he signed three years ago, as one of the best young goalkeepers in the world.
It is not as though there were not any other possibilities. There were plenty of them: Rene Adler of Bayer Leverkusen, the German number one who missed the World Cup due to injury, Igor Akineev the Russian number one, Hugo Lloris the French number one, Steklenberg the Dutch number one or if he wanted something on the cheap then Eduardo, the Portugese number one who had such a good World Cup. In addition, there are probably a number of others who with his far more extensive knowledge of the game and great scouting network Wenger would know about. All these goalkeepers are in their mid to late 20s, and bar Eduardo would likely cost in excess of £10 million.
With Wenger now saying we have money (rather disingenuously if one believes quotes he and the board made since at least 2007-2008 which suggests we had money back then) that should not have been a problem in signing one of these ‘keepers. What seems to be the problem is that he does not want to hurt, as he sees, it his young goalkeepers at the Colney crèche.
To make matters worse, none of the young Arsenal goalkeepers have yet gone out on loan to get the much needed match practise and experience to develop, or in the case of Fabianski, save their goalkeeping careers. Although with another week left for league clubs to sign loan deals there is the hope that some, such as Szczesny might go out on loan to Championship sides.
More than any other position goalkeepers need to play matches to enhance their decision making and positioning. All the top goalkeepers past and present, (Casillas, Khan, Seaman, Buffon, Van der Sar, Shilton etc) have all played regularly from a young age gaining that experience before reaching their peak in their late twenties, early thirties. They have not done so by just training, playing in the reserves and then getting the odd professional game once a month, which has been Wenger’s strategy with Fabianski. This has certainly not helped Fabianski develop from being one the hottest young ‘keeping prospects into a Premiership class let alone world class player.
The failed pursuit of Schwarzer is all too typical of a manager fixed on his deluded anti Chelsea/Man City policy of developing a young team on the cheap rather than in the best interests of Arsenal Football Club. This will mean a continued lack of investment in the playing squad and thus failure to compete at the highest level, let alone win a trophy.
Unfortunately this is the way it will remain until Wenger leaves. But with the obsequious board seemingly happy to see Arsenal chug along in relative mediocrity, just qualifying for the cash bonanza of the Champions League to pay off the stadium debt, it will take a catastrophe (i.e. not qualifying for the Champions League) for that to change at which point we all suffer.
By Jeremy Cunnington, The Online Gooner on 3 Sep 10
Showing posts with label Mark Schwarzer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Schwarzer. Show all posts
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Window Closes on New Keeper Hopes
So, the transfer window slammed shut for another few months yesterday evening and there was no late activity to report other than the loan moves of Armand Traore and Nacer Barazite to Juventus and Vitesse Arnhem respectively. That there was no new goalkeeper signed will be the biggest talking point amongst Arsenal fans.
The "goalkeeping situation" was not just a figment of fan-talk or internet hysterics, it is clearly an area that Arsene Wenger recognised needed addressing due to the fact that a formal bid was tabled for Fulham's Mark Schwarzer. Personally, I am not that disappointed that the Australian has not come. At his age, he was never going to be a long-term solution and the fact that it has taken until this point in his career for a big club to take a real interest in him rather suggests he is not actually that much better than what we already have.
That said, I do believe new blood was required. What Schwarzer would have brought was a change - and, even if a top-class keeper couldn’t be found, a change would have felt like a positive step forward from the current status quo where the impression is that Arsene Wenger keeps telling us we have four great goalkeepers but no one really believes him. You wonder whether the manager really believes it himself. Tellingly, whilst the club might have been trying to bring in a new senior goalkeeper, it seems that we have hardly had other teams queuing up to take either Almunia or Fabianski off our hands in order to make space.
So, for the time being, we have to make do with what we have got. Whatever reservations people have about Manuel Almunia, he has to be the first-choice goalkeeper. He is the best we have currently got and, in the cold light of day, he does make more saves than he costs the team games. He might not have the ability to add ten or fifteen points to Arsenal’s season in the way that David Seaman used to but most of the time he does a reasonable job. (It’s a shame we have to settle for "reasonable" though, isn’t it?). Now he knows he has at least until January as the Gunners’ likely number one, it is up to him to rise to the challenge, find some confidence and show the manager and fans that he is the man for the job. Time will tell whether he has it within him to do that.
The real worry is Fabianski. It will only take one injury to Manuel Almunia to see him promoted to first-choice and that is a prospect that sends shivers down the spine. I wish I could be charitable enough to call him “reasonable” too but he has had his chances and has spectacularly blown every one of them. Sadly, at a club like Arsenal, who have aspirations of being in a position to win things every year, you cannot get away with a goalkeeper who has proved himself to be a liability at this level. We can only hope that Almunia stays fit and the Pole’s opportunities are minimal between now and January when there will be another chance to review matters.
As for Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczęsny, it will be interesting to see what happens with these two. It seems unlikely that Arsene Wenger will keep four goalkeepers on the books, so it is probable that one will go out on loan. Szczęsny returned from his loan spell with Brentford last season with rave reviews and many fans calling for him to be pushed up the pecking order. However, as always, the only opinion that matters is that of Arsene Wenger and we could get to see whether he rates the young Pole as highly as the hype surrounding him would have it.
Though the goalkeeping debate is the one that will rumble on past the closure of the window, Arsenal fans ought to be pretty content when looking at the business conducted over the summer as a whole. At the end of last season, most supporters, (at least, those with realistic expectations), were calling for a new goalkeeper, reinforcements at centre-back and a new striker. With the confirmation of the signing of Sebastien Squillaci last week added to the arrivals of Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh, Arsene Wenger has delivered what most have wanted - two new centre-backs who have a bit of age and experience behind them and striker who will give the front line some physical presence. On top of that, we have seen Jack Wilshere properly promoted to the first-team scene and, most critically, Barcelona’s attempts to sign Cesc Fabregas successfully rebuffed.
A new goalie would have completed the set but it was not be. Many supporters will be haranguing Wenger for failing throw some money at bringing a new face to keep goal but you can’t always get what you want and we all know that is not how he works. The situation puts pressure on him and, indeed, the goalkeepers at the club but it is up to them as professionals to respond to that pressure positively.
As we embark on the first international break of the season, and taking stock of the last few weeks, Arsenal supporters should also be very happy with the start that has been made to the campaign. Seven points have been taken from a possible nine and two traditionally tricky away games have been negotiated and gotten out of the way early.
Saturday’s victory at Blackburn was particularly pleasing. The clash of cultures between the Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal and teams managed by Sam Allardyce has been well-documented over the past decade and the Gunners have had some of their roughest days playing Allardyce sides. However, at the weekend, they held off plenty of late pressure from Rovers to cling onto their 2-1 lead.
It was excellent to see Theo Walcott picking straight up where he left off against Blackpool and notching the first goal. Again, he showed a degree of directness and assertiveness that has been missing during his time at Arsenal. If being left out of England’s World Cup squad in the summer has had the duel impact of both giving him a good rest and the time for him to consider that he has to start genuinely stepping up to the plate and raising his game, then that is all to the good.
He got plenty of criticism last season from pundits and fans, myself included, and it is hard to argue that it wasn’t deserved. However, nothing would please me more than if he made a telling contribution to Arsenal’s campaign this time round and proved his doubters wrong. The fact he has already equalled his previous best-ever goal tally in a Premier League season surely bodes well for the months ahead.
It was disappointing to see that Robin Van Persie picked up an ankle injury in Saturday’s match. Hopefully, it won’t keep him out for too long. Cesc Fabregas still looked a little short of complete fitness but another couple of weeks should see him right.
Usually it is a shame to see players go off on international duty but, with a solid start to the season banked, it will give everyone a few more weeks to pull themselves up to full pace (assuming they don’t return with injured!). It’s been a good start. Let’s hope the players can build on it further when they return.
Source: David Young, ESPN Soccernet on 1 Sep 10
The "goalkeeping situation" was not just a figment of fan-talk or internet hysterics, it is clearly an area that Arsene Wenger recognised needed addressing due to the fact that a formal bid was tabled for Fulham's Mark Schwarzer. Personally, I am not that disappointed that the Australian has not come. At his age, he was never going to be a long-term solution and the fact that it has taken until this point in his career for a big club to take a real interest in him rather suggests he is not actually that much better than what we already have.
That said, I do believe new blood was required. What Schwarzer would have brought was a change - and, even if a top-class keeper couldn’t be found, a change would have felt like a positive step forward from the current status quo where the impression is that Arsene Wenger keeps telling us we have four great goalkeepers but no one really believes him. You wonder whether the manager really believes it himself. Tellingly, whilst the club might have been trying to bring in a new senior goalkeeper, it seems that we have hardly had other teams queuing up to take either Almunia or Fabianski off our hands in order to make space.
So, for the time being, we have to make do with what we have got. Whatever reservations people have about Manuel Almunia, he has to be the first-choice goalkeeper. He is the best we have currently got and, in the cold light of day, he does make more saves than he costs the team games. He might not have the ability to add ten or fifteen points to Arsenal’s season in the way that David Seaman used to but most of the time he does a reasonable job. (It’s a shame we have to settle for "reasonable" though, isn’t it?). Now he knows he has at least until January as the Gunners’ likely number one, it is up to him to rise to the challenge, find some confidence and show the manager and fans that he is the man for the job. Time will tell whether he has it within him to do that.
The real worry is Fabianski. It will only take one injury to Manuel Almunia to see him promoted to first-choice and that is a prospect that sends shivers down the spine. I wish I could be charitable enough to call him “reasonable” too but he has had his chances and has spectacularly blown every one of them. Sadly, at a club like Arsenal, who have aspirations of being in a position to win things every year, you cannot get away with a goalkeeper who has proved himself to be a liability at this level. We can only hope that Almunia stays fit and the Pole’s opportunities are minimal between now and January when there will be another chance to review matters.
As for Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczęsny, it will be interesting to see what happens with these two. It seems unlikely that Arsene Wenger will keep four goalkeepers on the books, so it is probable that one will go out on loan. Szczęsny returned from his loan spell with Brentford last season with rave reviews and many fans calling for him to be pushed up the pecking order. However, as always, the only opinion that matters is that of Arsene Wenger and we could get to see whether he rates the young Pole as highly as the hype surrounding him would have it.
Though the goalkeeping debate is the one that will rumble on past the closure of the window, Arsenal fans ought to be pretty content when looking at the business conducted over the summer as a whole. At the end of last season, most supporters, (at least, those with realistic expectations), were calling for a new goalkeeper, reinforcements at centre-back and a new striker. With the confirmation of the signing of Sebastien Squillaci last week added to the arrivals of Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh, Arsene Wenger has delivered what most have wanted - two new centre-backs who have a bit of age and experience behind them and striker who will give the front line some physical presence. On top of that, we have seen Jack Wilshere properly promoted to the first-team scene and, most critically, Barcelona’s attempts to sign Cesc Fabregas successfully rebuffed.
A new goalie would have completed the set but it was not be. Many supporters will be haranguing Wenger for failing throw some money at bringing a new face to keep goal but you can’t always get what you want and we all know that is not how he works. The situation puts pressure on him and, indeed, the goalkeepers at the club but it is up to them as professionals to respond to that pressure positively.
As we embark on the first international break of the season, and taking stock of the last few weeks, Arsenal supporters should also be very happy with the start that has been made to the campaign. Seven points have been taken from a possible nine and two traditionally tricky away games have been negotiated and gotten out of the way early.
Saturday’s victory at Blackburn was particularly pleasing. The clash of cultures between the Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal and teams managed by Sam Allardyce has been well-documented over the past decade and the Gunners have had some of their roughest days playing Allardyce sides. However, at the weekend, they held off plenty of late pressure from Rovers to cling onto their 2-1 lead.
It was excellent to see Theo Walcott picking straight up where he left off against Blackpool and notching the first goal. Again, he showed a degree of directness and assertiveness that has been missing during his time at Arsenal. If being left out of England’s World Cup squad in the summer has had the duel impact of both giving him a good rest and the time for him to consider that he has to start genuinely stepping up to the plate and raising his game, then that is all to the good.
He got plenty of criticism last season from pundits and fans, myself included, and it is hard to argue that it wasn’t deserved. However, nothing would please me more than if he made a telling contribution to Arsenal’s campaign this time round and proved his doubters wrong. The fact he has already equalled his previous best-ever goal tally in a Premier League season surely bodes well for the months ahead.
It was disappointing to see that Robin Van Persie picked up an ankle injury in Saturday’s match. Hopefully, it won’t keep him out for too long. Cesc Fabregas still looked a little short of complete fitness but another couple of weeks should see him right.
Usually it is a shame to see players go off on international duty but, with a solid start to the season banked, it will give everyone a few more weeks to pull themselves up to full pace (assuming they don’t return with injured!). It’s been a good start. Let’s hope the players can build on it further when they return.
Source: David Young, ESPN Soccernet on 1 Sep 10
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Arsenal fail to sign a real goalkeeper, you could almost cry
We do have four goalkeepers, it’s just that the main two are crap
It is hard to know where to start. It is hard to know quite how to express the intensity of the disappointment that Arsenal have failed to sign a goalkeeper in this summer transfer window. I actually felt a sense of loss when the window closed, because I knew that it meant that Arsenal’s hopes to win silverware this season were severely, if not fatally, flawed without a quality goalkeeper. For a season that shows so much promise, you could almost mourn its passing.
We all knew the failure was coming. In our hearts we all knew that Arsenal were excruciatingly not going to sign Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer, or anyone else better than what we already have, but while the window existed so too did our wild-eyed innocent hope that Arsenal would somehow or other land a new keeper.
We didn’t know how, we stopped caring who, we didn’t really mind if it happened by accident, we just needed Arsenal to cap a promising squad, to make it credibly challenge for honours this season, by adding a quality goalkeeper. Just someone clearly better and more reliable than our first and second-choice keepers Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski. Jeez, just typing their names gives you the shivers. The sheer scale of the failure is devastating. What on earth were Arsenal thinking?
Firstly, let’s get the sob story out of the way. If Fulham’s David Stockdale had not got injured maybe we could still have landed Schwarzer. Perhaps the straightforward plan had been to offer a bit more cash for Schwarzer on deadline day, to complete the signing for a reasonable fee. If that had come off, we would possibly all be quite happy right now. That approach may be admirable in some ways, but ultimately it leaves very little leeway.
As soon as Mark Hughes became Fulham boss I expected that his frosty relationship with Arsene Wenger might put paid to any deal. Should you not have alternatives in mind, ready to act? If we did try to sign Thomas Sorensen at end of the January transfer window has he suddenly become crap? Could he not have been a Plan B? A deal for Schwarzer was out of character for Wenger anyway. He likes to sign French, African or French/African players, although so far generally not for goalkeepers. Perhaps an eventual signing will come from this route.
In the here and now, if you bid for someone twice early in the window you must presumably want them quite a lot, so why leave the possibility of a deal open to the last day, months later? Hughes said that Arsenal didn’t bid for Schwarzer on deadline day. That Arsenal did not manage to sign someone other than Schwarzer suggests that there was no plan B. I’m sorry, I like Mark Schwarzer and I think he would have been good for Arsenal but he is not the world’s only goalkeeper.
You’ve got to be honest here in basic ways: it has been clear for a good two seasons that Almunia and Fabianski are not good enough for Arsenal, so why are they still here and why haven’t we replaced them? What kind of scouting network do we have that we cannot find a decent first-choice goalkeeper in world football? What kind of goalkeeper coaching do we do that neither of our first two frontline keepers looks capable of handling aerial threats?
As I said in my blog of August 12th, ’If Arsenal sign a goalkeeper we challenge for honours: it’s that simple’, a goalkeeper for a football team is like a plug for a bath: have a dodgy plug and the water will leak out. Dodgy goalkeepers leak goals. There is no way around this, there is no hiding from it. We cannot challenge for anything this season with a leaky goalkeeper. A quality keeper signing was crucial, to stop conceding sloppy goals, to halt the putrid way we have let recent title challenges crumble through horrific keeper errors.
Watching on as other clubs, other muppety inferior clubs, land player after player on deadline day is humiliating. It is enough to bring on diarrhoea. I feel sad, because even this early in the season we could have just pierced our aspirations, before we’ve barely started. I also find it curious that we have kept all four of Almunia, Fabianski, Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczesny. Wasn’t one supposed to go out on loan? How are we going to offer all of them enough of a game, at the available levels? Peculiar. Do they all still remain in genuine competition for the number one slot, as in pre season, or are we back to a hierarchy of seniority? Mannone and Szczesny deserve more exposure.
Frankly though there is nothing we can do now about a new goalkeeper till the next transfer window and we can all guess what we expect from that. In the meantime, by and large, we do have a very good squad and at least we have added a couple of defenders. That is almost equally as vital as the new keeper. There is no doubt about it, defensive injuries and frailties thwarted us last season, not just the goalkeepers. Our inadequacies have not solely been down to the keepers to be fair and in some ways the goalies have taken the flak off the defenders, so now we should still be stronger for their addition, albeit without a stronger keeper.
Not only do you have to question the failure to sign a quality keeper, you also have to question how Almunia has been handled. He has been, rightly or wrongly, our first-choice keeper for several years. At times he has played badly enough to be dropped for Fabianski, who has then fared even worse and this pre season Almunia has suffered the indignity of his three fellow keepers being given supposedly equal chance to replace him, while constant speculation has reigned over Schwarzer's impending arrival.
As I said in Gooner 206, why not just be straight with Almunia and Fabianski in May, that they were free to find other clubs? Crucially, though, that needs other clubs to want to sign them. If Almunia was offered in part-exchange for Hugo Lloris on deadline day it didn't come off and what faith can Almunia now feel his boss has in him? What has been the eventual outcome to this bungling? It is clear that Wenger is not happy with our first and second-choice keepers, yet we are left lumbered with them and have destabilised the pair of them. We'll have to hope that the whole episode is somehow strangely motivational for them.
So what do we do now? We are Arsenal supporters, we support what we have got. We have to hope like crazy that our attacking intent can outweigh our defensive stress fractures. If we score at least two goals in every game we can override the damage caused by our flaws, but that’s not easy. We have four known keepers, you would like to hope that one of them would be good enough to play for our first team. Until the next transfer window of dubious promise, cling to that hope.
Source: Simon Rose, The Online Gooner on 1 Sep 10
It is hard to know where to start. It is hard to know quite how to express the intensity of the disappointment that Arsenal have failed to sign a goalkeeper in this summer transfer window. I actually felt a sense of loss when the window closed, because I knew that it meant that Arsenal’s hopes to win silverware this season were severely, if not fatally, flawed without a quality goalkeeper. For a season that shows so much promise, you could almost mourn its passing.
We all knew the failure was coming. In our hearts we all knew that Arsenal were excruciatingly not going to sign Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer, or anyone else better than what we already have, but while the window existed so too did our wild-eyed innocent hope that Arsenal would somehow or other land a new keeper.
We didn’t know how, we stopped caring who, we didn’t really mind if it happened by accident, we just needed Arsenal to cap a promising squad, to make it credibly challenge for honours this season, by adding a quality goalkeeper. Just someone clearly better and more reliable than our first and second-choice keepers Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski. Jeez, just typing their names gives you the shivers. The sheer scale of the failure is devastating. What on earth were Arsenal thinking?
Firstly, let’s get the sob story out of the way. If Fulham’s David Stockdale had not got injured maybe we could still have landed Schwarzer. Perhaps the straightforward plan had been to offer a bit more cash for Schwarzer on deadline day, to complete the signing for a reasonable fee. If that had come off, we would possibly all be quite happy right now. That approach may be admirable in some ways, but ultimately it leaves very little leeway.
As soon as Mark Hughes became Fulham boss I expected that his frosty relationship with Arsene Wenger might put paid to any deal. Should you not have alternatives in mind, ready to act? If we did try to sign Thomas Sorensen at end of the January transfer window has he suddenly become crap? Could he not have been a Plan B? A deal for Schwarzer was out of character for Wenger anyway. He likes to sign French, African or French/African players, although so far generally not for goalkeepers. Perhaps an eventual signing will come from this route.
In the here and now, if you bid for someone twice early in the window you must presumably want them quite a lot, so why leave the possibility of a deal open to the last day, months later? Hughes said that Arsenal didn’t bid for Schwarzer on deadline day. That Arsenal did not manage to sign someone other than Schwarzer suggests that there was no plan B. I’m sorry, I like Mark Schwarzer and I think he would have been good for Arsenal but he is not the world’s only goalkeeper.
You’ve got to be honest here in basic ways: it has been clear for a good two seasons that Almunia and Fabianski are not good enough for Arsenal, so why are they still here and why haven’t we replaced them? What kind of scouting network do we have that we cannot find a decent first-choice goalkeeper in world football? What kind of goalkeeper coaching do we do that neither of our first two frontline keepers looks capable of handling aerial threats?
As I said in my blog of August 12th, ’If Arsenal sign a goalkeeper we challenge for honours: it’s that simple’, a goalkeeper for a football team is like a plug for a bath: have a dodgy plug and the water will leak out. Dodgy goalkeepers leak goals. There is no way around this, there is no hiding from it. We cannot challenge for anything this season with a leaky goalkeeper. A quality keeper signing was crucial, to stop conceding sloppy goals, to halt the putrid way we have let recent title challenges crumble through horrific keeper errors.
Watching on as other clubs, other muppety inferior clubs, land player after player on deadline day is humiliating. It is enough to bring on diarrhoea. I feel sad, because even this early in the season we could have just pierced our aspirations, before we’ve barely started. I also find it curious that we have kept all four of Almunia, Fabianski, Vito Mannone and Wojciech Szczesny. Wasn’t one supposed to go out on loan? How are we going to offer all of them enough of a game, at the available levels? Peculiar. Do they all still remain in genuine competition for the number one slot, as in pre season, or are we back to a hierarchy of seniority? Mannone and Szczesny deserve more exposure.
Frankly though there is nothing we can do now about a new goalkeeper till the next transfer window and we can all guess what we expect from that. In the meantime, by and large, we do have a very good squad and at least we have added a couple of defenders. That is almost equally as vital as the new keeper. There is no doubt about it, defensive injuries and frailties thwarted us last season, not just the goalkeepers. Our inadequacies have not solely been down to the keepers to be fair and in some ways the goalies have taken the flak off the defenders, so now we should still be stronger for their addition, albeit without a stronger keeper.
Not only do you have to question the failure to sign a quality keeper, you also have to question how Almunia has been handled. He has been, rightly or wrongly, our first-choice keeper for several years. At times he has played badly enough to be dropped for Fabianski, who has then fared even worse and this pre season Almunia has suffered the indignity of his three fellow keepers being given supposedly equal chance to replace him, while constant speculation has reigned over Schwarzer's impending arrival.
As I said in Gooner 206, why not just be straight with Almunia and Fabianski in May, that they were free to find other clubs? Crucially, though, that needs other clubs to want to sign them. If Almunia was offered in part-exchange for Hugo Lloris on deadline day it didn't come off and what faith can Almunia now feel his boss has in him? What has been the eventual outcome to this bungling? It is clear that Wenger is not happy with our first and second-choice keepers, yet we are left lumbered with them and have destabilised the pair of them. We'll have to hope that the whole episode is somehow strangely motivational for them.
So what do we do now? We are Arsenal supporters, we support what we have got. We have to hope like crazy that our attacking intent can outweigh our defensive stress fractures. If we score at least two goals in every game we can override the damage caused by our flaws, but that’s not easy. We have four known keepers, you would like to hope that one of them would be good enough to play for our first team. Until the next transfer window of dubious promise, cling to that hope.
Source: Simon Rose, The Online Gooner on 1 Sep 10
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Why good goalkeepers are worth their weight in goal
"What kind of a goalkeeper is the one who is not tormented by the goal he has allowed?" said the Russian great. "He must be tormented! And if he is calm, that means the end. No matter what he had in the past, he has no future."
While Yashin's philosophical assessment may have been poignant during the 1950s and '60s, he would probably revise his opinion in the tumult of the Premier League era.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been searching all summer for a perfectly balanced individual with fingertips of steel, the kicking ability of Jonny Wilkinson, the concentration of a Queen's Guard and an ability for organising defences.
Wenger has had two £2m bids for Mark Schwarzer turned down by Fulham, while Manchester City's Shay Given and Stoke's Asmir Begovic have been linked with possible moves around England.
Basic economics should dictate that a paucity of supply, coupled with high demand, should force prices to increase, although strangely that theory does not seem to apply for goalkeepers.
"A good goalkeeper is as valuable as a striker that's going to score 20 to 25 goals a season," former Arsenal goalkeeper John Lukic told BBC Sport.
"When I first started playing [in 1978] there was not a great deal of importance placed on keepers but Brian Clough was the instigator of the goalkeeper being an important part of the team when he bought Peter Shilton for Nottingham Forest [in 1977].
"And he went on to be proved right when they won European Cups and championships."
At 37, Schwarzer is clearly not a long-term prospect for Wenger, which explains the low price tag. But what the Australia international lacks in cash value he more than makes up for in experience, with over 450 games in the top flight.
A couple of seasons of Schwarzer would give Arsenal just enough time to turn either Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczesny into the next David Seaman.
"The top managers need someone who can stand there for 70 minutes and, when called upon, can make the saves they want him to make, as opposed to someone younger and inexperienced who might not make that save," said Lukic.
"If you have a track record and pedigree, which both Schwarzer and Given have, it's better than going for someone who is 25 or 26 who has played a couple of seasons who has done OK. Managers like keepers with experience."
Behind every great team is a great goalkeeper, an ever-present figure on whom championship-winning empires are built around. Think Shilton at Forest, Bruce Grobelaar at Liverpool, David Seaman at Arsenal, Peter Schmeichel at Manchester United or Petr Cech at Chelsea.
And according to Lukic, who made 223 appearances for Arsenal in an eight-year spell at Highbury between 1983 and 1990, the reason is rather prosaic.
"Most top keepers are not transient - they don't float from team to team," he said.
"They go to a team and stay there. Their services are retained because they are that good - it's as simple as that.
"Myself and Dave Seaman spent the best part of 20 years at the club, but look at the number of keepers they have had since then."
Schwarzer would not be the first veteran goalkeeper Wenger has turned to in order to fill a sizeable gap. He signed a 33-year-old Jens Lehmann in 2003 to replace Seaman, and the German spent five seasons with the club until his departure in 2008.
But the interim period has seen Manuel Almunia's fortunes fluctuate between the posts, while neither Fabianski or Mannone have shown sufficient proficiency to convince Wenger they are ready for the long haul.
"I think Manuel has been unlucky - there have been errors but you are in control of your own destiny as a keeper," said Lukic.
"Rumours only start circulating when question marks are placed against you and it seems it has been placed against Manuel. Schwarzer may or may not happen, but Almunia is the one who remains incumbent and has to deal with whatever is thrown at him."
Time is running out for Wenger, and the Premier League's other goalkeeper-deficient managers, as the summer transfer window deadline fast approaches on 31 August.
They may not be as tormented as in the days of Yashin, but a reliable modern-day goalkeeper with all the trimmings will always remain an in-demand - and increasingly rare - commodity.
Source: Pranav Soneji , BBC Sport on 23 Aug 10
While Yashin's philosophical assessment may have been poignant during the 1950s and '60s, he would probably revise his opinion in the tumult of the Premier League era.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been searching all summer for a perfectly balanced individual with fingertips of steel, the kicking ability of Jonny Wilkinson, the concentration of a Queen's Guard and an ability for organising defences.
Wenger has had two £2m bids for Mark Schwarzer turned down by Fulham, while Manchester City's Shay Given and Stoke's Asmir Begovic have been linked with possible moves around England.
Basic economics should dictate that a paucity of supply, coupled with high demand, should force prices to increase, although strangely that theory does not seem to apply for goalkeepers.
"A good goalkeeper is as valuable as a striker that's going to score 20 to 25 goals a season," former Arsenal goalkeeper John Lukic told BBC Sport.
"When I first started playing [in 1978] there was not a great deal of importance placed on keepers but Brian Clough was the instigator of the goalkeeper being an important part of the team when he bought Peter Shilton for Nottingham Forest [in 1977].
"And he went on to be proved right when they won European Cups and championships."
At 37, Schwarzer is clearly not a long-term prospect for Wenger, which explains the low price tag. But what the Australia international lacks in cash value he more than makes up for in experience, with over 450 games in the top flight.
A couple of seasons of Schwarzer would give Arsenal just enough time to turn either Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone or Wojciech Szczesny into the next David Seaman.
"The top managers need someone who can stand there for 70 minutes and, when called upon, can make the saves they want him to make, as opposed to someone younger and inexperienced who might not make that save," said Lukic.
"If you have a track record and pedigree, which both Schwarzer and Given have, it's better than going for someone who is 25 or 26 who has played a couple of seasons who has done OK. Managers like keepers with experience."
Behind every great team is a great goalkeeper, an ever-present figure on whom championship-winning empires are built around. Think Shilton at Forest, Bruce Grobelaar at Liverpool, David Seaman at Arsenal, Peter Schmeichel at Manchester United or Petr Cech at Chelsea.
And according to Lukic, who made 223 appearances for Arsenal in an eight-year spell at Highbury between 1983 and 1990, the reason is rather prosaic.
"Most top keepers are not transient - they don't float from team to team," he said.
"They go to a team and stay there. Their services are retained because they are that good - it's as simple as that.
"Myself and Dave Seaman spent the best part of 20 years at the club, but look at the number of keepers they have had since then."
Schwarzer would not be the first veteran goalkeeper Wenger has turned to in order to fill a sizeable gap. He signed a 33-year-old Jens Lehmann in 2003 to replace Seaman, and the German spent five seasons with the club until his departure in 2008.
But the interim period has seen Manuel Almunia's fortunes fluctuate between the posts, while neither Fabianski or Mannone have shown sufficient proficiency to convince Wenger they are ready for the long haul.
"I think Manuel has been unlucky - there have been errors but you are in control of your own destiny as a keeper," said Lukic.
"Rumours only start circulating when question marks are placed against you and it seems it has been placed against Manuel. Schwarzer may or may not happen, but Almunia is the one who remains incumbent and has to deal with whatever is thrown at him."
Time is running out for Wenger, and the Premier League's other goalkeeper-deficient managers, as the summer transfer window deadline fast approaches on 31 August.
They may not be as tormented as in the days of Yashin, but a reliable modern-day goalkeeper with all the trimmings will always remain an in-demand - and increasingly rare - commodity.
Source: Pranav Soneji , BBC Sport on 23 Aug 10
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