Bialkiwski looked really good in pre-season before the Championship. Had he not made the mistake against West Brom he may well have been given the gloves.
Bart had a few bad spells with us, mostly on the Forums.
Bialkiwski looked really good in pre-season before the Championship. Had he not made the mistake against West Brom he may well have been given the gloves.
It's the same with Ramirez - virtually every star player in Europe at his age were playing consistently for a big club and playing really well, so I'm unsure over how he'll end up.I was interested in that last question. Gazza is 21, nearly 22. What other keepers currently in the Premier League were doing when they were 21/22:
De Gea - Established first choice at Atletico Madrid
Lloris - First choice for Nice in Ligue 1
Szczęsny - Established himself as first choice at Arsenal around this age
Hart - Around the Man City first team, had a successful loan spell at Birmingham when 22
Mignolet - First choice at Sint-Truiden in the Belgian second division. Joined Sunderland at 22 and took a little while to establish himself
Cech - First choice at Rennes. Agreed to sign for Chelsea about this time
Howard - In and around the New York/New Jersey MetroStars first team. Played 9 of 28 games at 21. Won MLS GK of the year at 22
Krul - Became first choice at Newcastle at 22
Boruc - Backup at Legia Warsaw. Became first choice around 22/23
Vorm - Seems to have been getting experience on loan at FC Den Bosch in the Dutch second division
Guzan - First choice at Chivas USA
McGregor - Backup at Rangers
Begovic - Backup at Pompey, spent 3 months on loan at Yeovil
Marshall - Backup to Boruc at Celtic but had earlier been first choice (briefly).
Ruddy - On loan somewhere. Had several loan spells before he was 21
Myhill - Had a couple of loans, joined Hull as first choice in Division Three (League 2)
Jääskeläinen - first choice in the Finnish Premier League. Became first choice at Bolton when 23
Speroni - First choice at Dundee I think (but it's not quite clear from wikipedia and I can't be bothered to research it further)
Stekelenburg - Backup at Ajax (played 10 times)
Mannone - Third choice at Arsenal. Had a couple of loan spells at Hull
So most of those keepers - especially the more highly-rated keepers - were playing games (or had played games) at Gazza's age, even if it wasn't in a high quality league.
I agree with that stance. But surely a keeper is a bit different, the job doesn't change that much despite what the outfield players do? Or am i being ignorant?!
Yes, it is different for a keeper, though while we have the situation that we do we can only speculate. I've just seen the 90 minutes [wasn't able to see the second half yesterday] and on the whole Gazza does all right.
Incidentally, the swipe that Sissoko gave the referee was a fair clip. I realise he was just trying to swipe Gazza's hand away, but what actually amazed me was that after the ref went down he didn't bat an eyelid, but just kept looking at Gazzaniga. Shall we say that his vision isn't top draw..? His touch is obviously in question..! Poor old ref. Looked to have taken a bit of a flick to the eye as well as the nose.
Oh, and the Schneiderlin foul. Bit energetic with his tackle. He got the ball but he got the man on the follow through. The Toon goalkeeping coach apparently took exception. Try as I might I couldn't find Danny Osvaldo getting involved, although I did see both Poch and Pards trying to diffuse the situation. Perhaps I'll take another look.
Osvaldo wanted to be involved, but Cropper held him back.
Newcastle goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman has officially complained that Southampton goalkeeper coach Toni Jimenez kicked him in the genitals.
Newcastle goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman has officially complained that Southampton goalkeeper coach Toni Jimenez kicked him in the genitals.
Newcastle goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman has officially complained that Southampton goalkeeper coach Toni Jimenez kicked him in the genitals.