da supremo： Where have all of our British goalkeepers gone?
da bet nacional： There appears to be a lack of British talent in the Premier League, which will have obvious consequences for the national team. In truth, Joe Hart is the best English goalkeeper, but there aren’t that many to back him up.
At the moment, Hart stands out as our No.1, with Fraser Forster and Jack Butland next in line, but when you look at the goalkeepers in the Premier League, out of 20 teams, only five British ‘keepers play regularly.
You can argue that back-up stoppers are largely British as with Randolph at West Ham (yes, I know he plays for Ireland, but we always seem to include the Republic these days), but what’s the appeal of foreign players?
Are they better? Are they cheaper? Another obvious problem with the constant buying of foreign goalkeepers, is that our own emerging talent never gets the chance to shine through. Southampton’s Fraser Forster and Stoke’s Jack Butland are playing regularly, Mark Bunn has had his turn at Villa and Norwich switch from John Ruddy to Declan Rudd. Come to think of it, Hart didn’t even start in the Capital One Cup Final this year, so how safe is our own number one?
It’s different abroad, and in Spain the majority of teams have goalkeepers that are Spanish or from their colonies, but we don’t.
Peter Shilton, England’s most capped player, suggested a few years ago that English goalkeepers are not coached on the technical aspects of their profession as well as their foreign counterparts. That’s been disputed since, as it has been said that the young English ‘keepers are as good, if not better technically and their handling skills are often superior because they are more comfortable catching balls that the others would punch.
But if you look back, Premier League teams just don’t appear to produce good young goalies and prefer to buy from foreign shores. Even the US have three Premier League glovesmen, and they are not known particularly for producing talent between the sticks.
In the 1970s, England had a number of high quality goalkeepers to pick from. Ray Clemence and Shilton always vied for the number one shirt, with Joe Corrigan always number three. After that, you still had Paul Cooper at Ipswich and Phil Parkes. The national team had choice and those players that didn’t get as many or any caps were just unlucky to play when Clemence and Shilton were playing, but they were still playing regularly for their clubs.
It seems as though our clubs have given up on our own talent pool.
One coach was quoted as saying,”We are constantly looking, but our remit has changed in recent years. We aren’t looking for something near to the finished article any more. Initially, we are looking for somebody that has the physical attributes to be a top keeper rather than the technical ones, which you hope can be developed over time. Height has become more and more important. The first question anyone asks about a goalkeeper is ‘How tall is he?’ Six foot is no longer tall enough.”
In other positions on the field, youngsters at some clubs get their chance, so why not goalkeepers? Is it because if they make a mistake you can’t cover it up like you can elsewhere on the pitch? Is the game so about not losing, that clubs are that concerned about an untried pair of hands? Maybe.
Whatever the reasoning, British talent is losing out and so will our national teams.
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