We're getting pretty close to having more keepers than centre-halves now. The shift from 3/5 at the back to 4 demands a clear-out, in a way. Definitely an area that we need to address in January, though.
I've seen complications from Covid suggested as the reason he vanished off the face of the earth for half of the 2021-22 season (October 2021-March 2022 to be specific) due to needing so long to recover, as that set back his development as a result
Alfie Whiteman turns 25 next month. Brandon Austin is 24. Even for a GK, they really aren't young anymore. Is it a complete lack of personal ambition that keeps them at the club? Why are they still here?
We should've been getting them consistent loans from much, much earlier. They've not played nearly enough senior football for their ages.
Keep the HG/CG numbers up Similar to why Jamal Blackman was in the Chelsea squad for so long in spite never playing
Massive eff-up by the club (file under "The way forward ..." article ?? ) , but nothing that Spurs appear be especially PL bad of. Using Gomes and Lloris as "source data" , a long-term senior squad GK coming into the fold should be aged 25-26, and had nigh on 4 seasons of appearances beforehand.
So we'll file that under: total lack of personal ambition. The club has used them as elaborate bell boys and they've happily played along. Unimpressed.
You make it sound as if we're the only club which does this We aren't, as explained by Chelsea doing so with the same player on their books/bench for years, or Kelleher at Liverpool who gets a runout in the Season Killer Cup if they have league Two opponents (yet they expect a £20m+ fee for him, WTAF?) If you want to see lack of personal ambition, look at Zack Steffen at The Sheikh Mansour Team: 29 caps for the USA of America national team, yet in the four years since he signed for the Mansourites the most football he played was at Middlesbrough on loan last season so he's actively gone backwards in his development. Similar can be suggested for the Turkish keeper Man Utd signed in the summer, who traded being Fenerbahce's first-choice keeper to being backup for the bloke who still wakes up in a cold sweat when he remembers Lucas Moura bearing down on him
I don't actually blame either for staying. Neither are really high level keeping talents and at best they’d only really make a career in around League One/ Two, the average wage of League One and Two players are also less than what Austin earns a week at Spurs (£5k). So if in their shoes the choice is risk leaving to try and establish yourself in lower leagues (where failure to do so could see you fade into non-league) or stay at a Premier League club as an emergency backup and pocket a guaranteed £5k, I think the latter makes more sense.
TBH Whiteman has a decent chance of that, given he's got a couple of seasons as first choice keeper in the Allsvenskan under his belt that would at least generate a degree of interest Austin on the other hand has a half season in the Danish Superliga and a cup of coffee being a backup keeper in MLS...even when the first-choice keeper was at the Copa America, and both of those were before Lockdown
Even if they did have the ambition, it would not change the essential problem. Spurs should be looking to be producing s Jennings as much as they would a Hoddle or Kane. So as I said, one for the "The way forward ..." article.
Right, so lack of personal ambition then. No different to a player in their prime selling out and moving to Saudi or China back in the day. Just doesn't sit well with me.
What’s ambition for them though? What academy keeper in recent times has gone on to have an “ambitious” career that Austin or Whiteman should try emulating? No different to a player going Saudi and picking up about 5x their European wage with their club also making a nice sum? I’m sure if we got such an offer for Whiteman or Austin we’d accept and they themselves would bolt in a second.
There's a real shortage of English goalkeepers at the moment and this might be why. They're sitting on people's books as third or fourth choice and not getting time. That's both youngsters and those coming to the end of their careers. You've got Pickford, Pope, Ramsdale and Henderson and that's about it. Butland's gone to Scotland to try to resurrect his career, so respect to him for that. Patterson from Sunderland is supposedly rated as a prospect, as is Trafford at Burnley. The latter's had a hard start to the campaign though, so he needs to keep his place. The switch to footballing keepers may have caught out a lot of people. Clubs are looking abroad for their needs and it's tough for the locals.
Playing regular football and through that, trying to actually improve as players. Be involved in a promotion for a League 2 club. Win the EFL trophy. Who knows? There's plenty of players out there no-one thought would ever amount to more than a league 1/2 player who made it all the way to the top. Vardy, Antonio, Barnes, Kilman all started off in the lower echelons of English football (most were non-league iirc) and made it to the PL. Sitting around for years doing bugger all just to collect a pay cheque strikes me as a total lack of personal ambition. And both players have recently signed new contracts so it isn't the case that they couldn't have left despite a lack of offers.
For me a keepers first and most important job is keeping the ball out of the net. Trafford looks to have that attribute plus a bit more. You want to start the play from the back?, get the FBs and CBs to do it but don't have your keeper trying to dribble in his own area. Old school
Some of our academy keepers have tried that but no one’s found legitimate success yet. McGee’s spent his career in League One/ Two. Jansson went Ireland then back to Sweden. De Bie went to a club in Belgium and is yet to play. Glover went back to Aus and played A-League for a while and is now backup keeper at Boro. Vigoroux played League One/ Two and is now fourth choice at Burnley, basically what our two are here. Oluwayemi joined Portsmouth and is now on loan at non-league Chelmsford. All of these have so far likely had lesser contracts than what Austin and Whiteman have been signing at Spurs. If you’re not of the calibre to make it at a strong level then the best decision you can make is a financial one to safeguard your future. As for the players you’ve listed, none of them are really comparable to our two. They had no choice but to start from the bottom up. They’re all also outfield players where chances to play are going to be easier to come by. These are also exemptions to the general rule more so than examples to follow.
Nobody is demanding GK go on a 50 yd Messi run. It costs nothing to train aspiring GK to be able to accurately pass the ball to a team-mate, in addition to the expected core competences.
