Would Given have fancied the competition for places, after being pushed down the pecking order at City? He's basically unchallenged at the moment.
I know of a good young 'keeper, though he's not English. My friend Mark lives in Mönchengladbach, and has told me about a 19 year old German lad, who looks to be a real talent. His name is Marc-André ter Stegen and plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach. I've found a YouTube compilation of his best saves in the Bundesliga, check it out, some of them are pretty amazing, against talents like Götze: Best Saves Edit: Here's another one: Best Saves MK II
Fair point PNP. However, what I think we're more surprised about is the complete lack of interest THFC showed in Given. I mean, it didn't even appear on the Beeb's rumour column! Not even the Metro or Talksport mentioned a whif of it! Concern about 1st team football wouldn't have stopped us at least making a formal offer. mYbe we did but it was kept hush hush?
There's a good keeper at Sutton United called kevin Scriven,he was one of the Main reasons they got promoted last season,the step up would probably be to big though
Sorry, PNP. What competition, exactly. Assuming we had signed Given, instead of Friedl, then the only "competition" would be Gomes, or Cudicini. Not too many difficult choices there, are there?
What surprises me is the age factor looms so highly in Friedels case. He is a top quality goalkeeper, still perfoming well. We all know, or should do, that age in goalkeeping is a very different consideration from an outfield player. At forty reactions are still good enough, long sight is better, experience is better, concentration is better, and confidence is not such a factor. In other words there is little reason why a goalkeeper can not be at his peak in his early fortys. Many are saying he does not have long left, who does? Many players are only with us for a season or two, either because they are so good they are snapped up by a 'bigger' team, or not quite good enough to sustain a place. A season is a long time in football. Friedel is exactly the type of goalkeeper we needed, WITHOUT reservation.
Don't we have a couple of our young keepers on loan at Orient? Would they be good enough in a year or 2 with a bit of coaching and training with the likes of Friedel and Parks?
And Gomes is like a bottle of soft drink- all fizzy and active until the cap is removed then it slowly goes flat.
I think we're getting into a bit of a jumble, here. I'm not saying Friedl is a bad keeper - far from it. However, I still believe that age is a factor. I can't agree that any 40 year olds' reactions are as good as, say a 25 year old. No matter how fit you keep yourself, you can't help but deteriorate. In short, the point I was making is, that good as Friedl may be, I think Given was a better bet.
I don't how old you are NSIP but my reactions have improved with age. In my twenties I could not catch a cup falling off a table half way to the floor, now I can. Mind you I do knock them off the table more now.
I'm a "little" bit more than 40. At my age, they've usually hit the deck before I've realised what I've done, let alone had time to try and catch it
Sorry, They're both Villa players, aren't they. The only competition to Given in our first team squad would be Cudicini or Gomes. I don't see your point.
Gomes and Cudicini clearly are competition for most keepers. Guzan and Marshall really aren't. Bearing in mind Given's injury problems, if he were to miss some games and his replacement played well in the meantime, then he might struggle to regain his place. With Guzan and Marshall as his back-up, that's far less likely, in my opinion.
