Not sure if this has been brought up recently, but I've always had felt the signing of Rob Elliot was a weird one. Before he signed, and I must admit I had never really seen him play, we were well covered in goal. We had Krul, Harper and Forster still on our books. Which made the signing of another first team 'keeper a bit baffling to me - he was 26 at the time, if I remember correctly. I know he was signed for a modest sum (£500k?), but I felt it was unnecessary. Andy Woodman (goalkeeping coach) obviously knew him from Charlton, so must have seen something in him. As the time has gone by, he managed to unseat Harper as No.2, but hadn't really done anything to warrant it. With Tim's solid and uninjured run, he never got a look-in for PL games. He started Cup games when they came up, usually against lower league opposition and he always looked out of his depth - I've heard he made similar performances at reserve level. Which furthered my query to his signing. Now with Forster making a permanent move to Celtic, and Harper managing to get back in Pardew's good books, Elliot is a No.3. Do any of you see Elliot as a long term challenger to Krul, or are you just as baffled as I am, to his place in the team? I realise I've waffled on a bit, but this has been something that has stuck with me for a while and felt the need to bring it up with you fine folks.
Always felt it was a pointless signing, he wasn't even a regular when we bought him. The very few games he has played, he has looked poor. I hope he gets sold.
Pretty much how I feel. Sign another keeper, or promote a youngster - couldn't be any worse than Elliot!
Elliot isn't bad, but certainly not what I hope is a 2nd choice keeper anytime soon. He'll go the same route as Forster, and be sold.
Yeah, thing is Forster was much better competition for Krul in the long term. As we all know Harps has only got a couple more years left in him at the top level.
Don't be baffled. Harps is very old now. He can't possibly be on the team for long. He is brought in as a backup for the first team so should at least challenge Krul a bit.
Harps was good in his recent matches. He's isn't as sharp or quick as Krul, and not as good of a shot stopper, but he's intelligent, and he can do a fantastic job. I'm happy with Harps in goal!
Oh, I know Harps is old and only has a finite shelf-life. But I would be really worried if Elliot was our only recognised first team challenger to Krul. I guess the gist of it is, I am yet to be convinced that Elliot can cut it at the highest level.
There were rumours about the club trying to shift Harper because he was a big part of the 'Players Committee' that ran the team in 09/10 and 10/11 (and partly cost Hughton his job).
Unfortunately, I think that is the case here... True though we haven't seen anything to convince us that Elliot can cut it, and he probably had the most horrible of debuts that we did not lose thankfully. That said, even Perchy had a horrible few games to start his career and it took him years to turn it around. Bottomline, we can't judge a player by 1 game. If that's so, we would've kicked Colo out long ago. Hopefully he has impressed enough in training for Pardew to feel safe with him as backup. We obviously don't have information on their training, the only thing we can do is to wait for Elliot to be called upon and see how lol..
By the time Harps hangs up his gloves, Jak Alnwick will probs be ready for the first team squad. Also, anyone know if Soderberg was one of those released last season?
You always need 3 GK's, he was brought in for a cheap price, we had Forster who's alot better but he was always going to be sold on for a couple of mil when Krul emerged as our number 1 for many years to come.
