Steve Harper? Loyal servant or a joke figure?

191 games for us in total in all competitions, and 250 apps in total when you include his loan spells. That's about 15 apps per season since he started. Not TOO bad really.

You also have to remember that when he wasn't getting any games, we were battling up in the top 4 for the title and in the Champions League. There were worse things to be doing than being the back-up keeper in (at the time) one of the best sides in the country. It was between 2006 to 2011 when Harper notched up over 100 apps, which at the time was obviously enough to persuade him to sign a new contract. However, Krul then came along.

 

If you perform a simple mathematics equation, dividing one number by another, you can make it look canny but if you look in isolation at actually games per season, you'll find that a vast majority of the games came in batches when either Pav, Hislop, Given or Krull have been injured.

The second they were all fit again,Cinderella Harper got the bullet and then just took it without a murmer.

I'm actually embarrassed for him when he is on tv programmes such as the local one last night, talking about taking coaching badges.

What is the height of his ambitions there then? The reserves second team?

Vast parts of his career have been spent playing second fiddle to others. No man worth admiring would have these stats. Can you imagine Mary Poppins hanging around for 10 years as the back up striker? He'd have been off like a shot.

Shearer is remembered as a legend by kids who never say him play, whereas Harper is best remembered for his weekly trivia questions on local evening radio phone in.

That's the difference.

 

Dont know about anyone else, but spending my entire career on the books of the team i support sounds pretty perfect to me. Getting paid a healthy wage training and being part of the team. Just cos you dont start doesnt mean that you arent part of the team and you dont help them do well.

 

Sorry but that's a total cop out.

I love Sunderland AFC as much as anyone but if I was a good player, there is no way in a short 15 year career , that I could just be a back up player and accept it.

I don't think any man worth his salt would, no matter if its his boyhood club or not.

 

Perhaps he didn't leave because he couldn't be guaranteed a first team place elsewhere, or maybe no-one offered the same or better salary and if that's the case, then what is the incentive to leave and put his family through all that hassle?

Contrary to the views of a few on here, I think Steve Harper DID achieve. From Seaham Red Star to European football with NUFC represents a big leap in anybody's book and since he was continually offered new contracts by successive managers he must have had something in his locker.

How can he be castigated for staying loyal?

In any case, I think he will be more concerned with how he is remembered by NUFC and their supporters and not by outsiders and quite right too.

 

Well as people have said he has had runs in the team, perhaps he thought he was good enough to keep his place but got unlucky with injuries and/or coming up against two of the best goalkeepers around at the time in Given and Krul. Its his choice, but to call him a joke of a man his pretty severe considering you have no idea about his situation or his choices for staying.

 

Topper Argus..just topper..

People forget he came from no-where and made it to the top league..and had some great times and memories..and they also made a young man rich...

Not bad...

 

Not to mention he set a new clean sheet record at NUFC. I'll always remember Harper, as will many toon fans and many neutrals. I'm sure he couldn't care less that a few mackems from not606 believe they won't remember him. Another chapter in his career will start at the end of the season if he decides to retire.

 

In hindsight it is a bit of a waste of a career. I think he must have thought that Given would have left a long time before he did. Alot of Harpers family are Sunderland fans incidentally, i go to matches with his cousin.

 

I think some may be over-estimating just how good Harper is also. He's a solid keeper, but not spectacular. I think if he'd left back in 2006 and gone on to a club at a similar level in the PL he would eventually struggle to keep his place. How many first choice PL GK's are worse than Harper? I personally think Harps is just one of the few Pro footballers of this era that aren't completely wrapped up in themselves - most likely because he has never really been in the spotlight.

He probabaly weighed up his options, considered how lucky he is to be in his line of work at a place he holds dear and decided a move elsewhere just wasn't for him. To call him the things Cestria is calling him is just a tiny bit OTT. Maybe he's one of very few nice guys left in the game who just so happens to be happy with his career the way it is?

 

Agreed.

Agreed also.

 

Well watching him being asked the very same questions I've posed today, he as much admitted huge regrets and actually said that if if could do it all over again if might have chosen a different path.

Also, from what I have seen of him, he was more than capable of being an EPL keeper for the last 15 years in his own rights. That if chose not to is a decision if will absolutely regret in his later years imo. I can and will have little sympathy for him personally. If had every opportunity to make a name for himself but just chose the easy option.

 

This
If I had any other talent in football other than being a thug, I would have cut off my left knacker to play professional football.
If my career had been as a serial bench warmer, I would have asked for my knacker back and went and did something else.

Like Cest says, this has nothing to do with loyalty all about someone happy to pick up a wage with no ambition.
From what I saw of Harper he would have got into a lot of other Prem teams.
Bringing up other players who showed loyalty, proves absolutely nothing, unless said players also collected money for doing nowt for 15 years.

 

Harper has played on stages that many goalkeepers would dream of. Champions League, Wembley, Premier League, Europe. Could he have made it better? Maybe, no one knows. Newcastle fans will remember him. It was his career choice, don't think anyone on here can have the cheek so say he ****ed up to be honest!

 

He'll be remembered by the people who will count to him, Newcastle fans. His career with us has probably taken him beyond his wildest dreams. He's seen it all, the good times and the bad. Champions League with Del Piero, an FA Cup final, I don't think he'll have too many regrets and there are plenty who don't have such times to look back on despite journeying around in search of first team football. Loyalty beyond belief all in the name of playing for his beloved club. Great stuff and many modern footballers could learn a lot from him. The other thing that complicated his departure was how injury prone Given was at various stages. Just as his frsutration grew, he'd get a run in the team. The constant changing of manager offered yet another chance to stake his claim.

And he eventually realised the dream by becoming first choice for a couple of seasons. Patience pays off sometimes and is most definetly a virtue. A loyal player and supporter.

 

You go with the fencehouses social bus Parker? I've been with them a few times and Harpers cousin go's with them.

 

This isn't Newcastle v Sunderland, you're on a football forum so you clearly love football.
Hand on heart, if you were good enough to play in the Prem.
Would you have been willing to spend so much time not playing at the top level?
I'm not saying this because Harper is Newcastle, I'm saying it is a waste of talent whichever team he sat on the bench for.

 

It's a whole new world, Harper obviously had his reasons at the time. I'm a Newcastle fan, and my heart goes out to Harper who has given my club almost 20 years of his career. The fact that he did that makes me admire him. He will look back in a few years and realise that he got to play professional football, something only a small minority get to do. Like I said, he obviously had reasons, family, whatever. Who are we to tell him he made nothing of his career? He has the experience to prove everyone wrong.

 

Loyal servant who deserves a lot more respect than he's getting on this thread

 

Exactly.