I wasn’t . With the lack of definite new owners we could not afford to gamble on losing all of our goalkeepers for free and having to replace them with a potentially more restricted budget. We had to sign one up and the one on a lower salary who had actually been playing at the time makes sense
Wasn’t Forster playing out of his skin at the time? I seem to remember feeling we’d extended the wrong keepers contact. When we signed Bazunu I assumed Willy would have gone and McCarthy was our No 2.
He’s also not that good and the optics on that contract certainly don’t look great in hindsight. It was rumoured to have been signed ages ago. I think The Athletic first reported it last summer, way prior to the buyout. I’m sure he wouldn’t have had renewed it if the renewal was handled in the January to Summer period just gone.
No - absolutely not. Fraser wasn’t even playing when McCarthy signed his contract - it was the beginning of the season. He hasn’t played regularly for us for ages He only started playing in the second half of last season - several months after the contract was signed. And “out of his skin” is pushing it in my opinion. I’d suggest the last time he played out of his skin for saints was prior to his patella injury. Years ago. And we couldn’t have extended his contract anyway because it was massive. I expect his wasn’t prepared to take the significant pay cut it would have required.
I agree on the part where if he still hadn’t extended pre-sport republic then he wouldn’t have got one. It probably would have been withdrawn.
Ah yes it’s all coming back now! I remember that, Sam Vokes challenge at the chapel end. I always thought he was a classy keeper, didn’t really reach his potential/stay at his peak though.
Yeah I think the club would be quite happy going into this season with Gav, Willy and Lis. I think signing Lis and him subsequently not going anywhere on loan (yet) is really proof of that. It seemed like a really odd signing but I think it had to be with the optimism that they might be able to move Alex McCarthy later in the window.
I'm no expert but I gather that patella injuries are truly awful and the fact that he came back even close to before was impressive. They just sound so painful. And I don't think it is possible to get them back to how they were before
Getting the circa 50k p/w off the wage bill will help as well. It is on the high side for a back up keeper - especially for a club our size. I'd imagine the clubs whose backup keepers are on equal or more are the Top 6 and maybe West Ham and that probably being it. We probably (rightly) think there are better uses for that money But I'm not getting carried away as him moving to Man United just doesn't seem plausible. ETH will want a backup who can play out from the back. That was how they conceded the second yesterday - an attempt to play out that catastrophically failed. What they can get for up to 7m remains to be seen
Didn't Forster come back better than ever? He was certainly a huge improvement and cog in that 2016 run to Europe. 6 clean sheets in a row, wasn't it? It was only under Pellegrino, his form went downhill (along with the teams) Ita a bit of a myth/rewriting of history (to me, at least), that his injury ruined him.
Transfermarkt think it is a four year deal until 2025. But they also think Stephens is out of contract but still playing so are not fully up to date. If it really is until 2025 then I imagine we'd be delighted to get that off the books
I have looked and you are right. I thought his injury came later. In which case I'm not sure why his form deserted him. Because being psychologically effected by a severe injury and playing more cautiously would definitely be a strong reason
It’s re-writing history to think he was ever that good for us. He was average-good in spells and poor in others. He benefited from having some great defensive players in front of him during his time as number 1 as well Of course he had the odd game where he was immense (Arsenal away springs to mind a few seasons ago) but overall I think his time with Saints can only be classed as average at best
Yeah severely overrated based on that first season when he has Fonte, Toby, Morgan & Wanyama in front of him and we conceded the second least amount of shots on target in the entire league (behind only Mourinho's Chelsea). People always point to that run of clean sheets but bar the Arsenal game you mention I don't recall him having to make loads of top saves in any of the other matches. Decent shot stopper on his day but could never deal with low shots and his presence in the box was terrible for a keeper of his size.
