Steven Howard in today’s Sun no less, has piled onto the bandwagon marked ‘Arsenal goalkeeping crisis’ and let rip. Howard writes:
“They have four goalkeepers on the books - Vito Mannone, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and teen Wojciech Szczesny - and none, for one reason or other, look up to the job.”
before making the stunning claim
“In fact, you would be hard pushed to find a Premier League club WITHOUT a better keeper than the four at Arsenal.”
Well thespoiler has been scratching itself having a good think this morning, and we reckon maybe Chelsea and Birmingham City are the only clubs without a better keeper than Arsenal - your thoughts below please…
It’s not just England who lack a decent number one
So what did we learn over the weekend then? Well the England goalkeeping problem became a little clearer, in the sense that we now know it is a real problem. Alternative candidates have come and gone, but it seems certain that David James will start “between the sticks” as football writers say, come next June.
But as Paul Wilson pointed out in a terrific article in Sunday’s Observer, the days of long-established number ones are no more. In World Cups of yore, the faces wearing green in the Panini sticker book, were recognisable to football fans up and down the country. Zoff, Zubizaretta, Oliver Kahn - you knew where you were back in the 80s and 90s. Yet now, the current Nationalmeinshaft’s nummer ein, Rene Adler, could have sat next to you on the bus this morning without your knowledge. And who would know if French custodian Steve Mandanda had delivered their mail this morning? Casillas and Buffon aside, we live in a world bereft of top keepers.
So its not just England who have problems - some comfort ahead of next summer. But what possible reason is there for this global phenomena? Light balls flying all over the place? Strikers banging the ball harder than ever? Or government anti-bullying campaigns in school stopping the infirm being forced into goal at a young age? Leave thoughts below…
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