Over the years we had some cracking keepers but no real back up. For the first time we have Gunn, Foster and McCarthy (all England quality). We can afford to lose one of Foster or McCarthy (probably the former who needs a fresh start somewhere) but I would be disappointed to go back to the situation where we have someone on the bench who might be OK if called upon. I thought it had been confirmed we were not in for a keeper. Am I wrong?
Jarrod Bowen rumours heating up. Mixed feelings. Good signing but with Ings, Adams, Redders and Djenepo in the squad I worry there will be no room for Long and Sims.
Quite an assumption. Gambling £xx million on a player who 'might' be good enough to dislodge a player who has shown he's good enough is a brave move. Sims is a cracking player. Unless there is clear evidence of a first team pathway, our chances of recruiting the right youngsters into our academy will reduce dramatically. That is our USP and I think most would agree with that. The other aspect of my worry - which I don't expect many modern fans to agree with - is that I would rather finish 10th with half the team made up of academy players than 8th with just one or two. It's why I support my 'local' team.
In fairness who isn't being linkedin to Jarrod Bowen? His agent has clearly been a busy boy! Also, I'd like him at Saints - certainly a better forward option than Long/Sims/Austin and £12m is reasonable. However I can't help but worry we will end up with no CB!!!
I guess its all about opinions. I couldn't care less where the player is from personally. I'd also argue what you consider "good enough" as I would say that neither Long or Sims are good enough to be playing regularly if we want to be a top half side. I've never really seen the hype with Sims, he is fast but aside from the odd flash has never really shown me that he has what it takes to be PL player. Still he is only 22 so a bit more time to prove me wrong.
If it was as easy as picking to finish 8th or 10th with half Home grown players, then great. It doesn’t work like that, however. I’d rather we sign players that the coaching staff think are better than current players and thus improve the overall quality of the team. If that means a current favourite misses out, then so be it.
I would take Bowen like a shot but it would mean trying to shift Long and/or Sims. We need to be moving a lot of these players out pretty sharpish otherwise it could mean serious issues financially
I understand where you are coming from, though I do also think that in the current market a combined £26m or so for two of the most talented young attackers in the championship is a snip, and will likely make a huge amount of business sense if either of them prove able to make the step up. Long has obvious limitations, as does Austin (who also doesn't really fir into the way RH sets up his team) so this doesn't necessarily mean a block on Sims - just means we can cheer on a talented, pacey, attacking team made up largely of young, British players - which is so, so rare in the Premierleague and massively exciting. Also, if it's the difference between finishing 16th and 18th - I'll take the added quality!
Never been entirely convinced by McCarthy tbh. Gazzaniga is an example of the process in reverse - error prone and inconsistent for us, went to Spurs and has largely been excellent.
Why? Club can look at more than 1 player at once. Swear some of you go crazy when there is no news for half a day.
Is there anything to the Bowen rumours or is it just Twitter talk. Would certainly have him at Saints.
It's also hard for someone to dislodge Sims, as Sims is pretty thoroughly dislodged as things stand. He scarcely played after returning from a loan where he played sparingly, and that followed two seasons where he scarcely played. And with Long, he's entering the final year of his contract. He's 32, and a backup-calibre player. His time at the club is drawing to a close one way or another.
There's another one. Gazzaniga. OK, he left because Pochettino and Spurs cam calling. I get that. But he didn't get much chance to get used to the big game. And I have two games recorded where he's playing. Both are against Aston Villa, as it happens, and I have watched them a bunch of times. And he plays really well in both. I know that the goalkeeping position is a harsh one, but he was learning his trade still, in terms of playing in front of a big crowd. I didn't see an error prone and inconsistent keeper. I saw a young keeper who did well, but had more experienced keepers in front of him. So now that he's doing fine at Spurs shouldn't be a surprise.
37 starts, 88 matches and 4100 minutes over the past three years in the league. We have a pretty good idea of who Shane Long is at this point.
