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Boruc article


whelk
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Good piece.

 

I didn't realise he was one of the GKs nominated for the 2008 World XI. That's a pretty high accolade by anybody's standards.

 

That we have such a quality keeper playing for us, and seemingly in the fittest and happiest condition of his career, makes me extremely optimistic for our future. I have to wonder just how much higher we could have finished had we signed him last summer, got him fit and played him from the start, instead of persisting with Gazzaniga.

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When the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign was beginning, Boruc did not have a club after being released by Fiorentina last summer. When he was eventually taken on as a free agent just over a year ago by Southampton, it was only on a short-term contract to be third-choice goalkeeper.

 

I find that very hard to believe. He was clearly signed (by the club if not Adkins) to be first choice, but gaining fitness after no pre-season and then the bottle incident delayed him starting regularly until January.

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Good piece.

 

I didn't realise he was one of the GKs nominated for the 2008 World XI. That's a pretty high accolade by anybody's standards.

 

That we have such a quality keeper playing for us, and seemingly in the fittest and happiest condition of his career, makes me extremely optimistic for our future. I have to wonder just how much higher we could have finished had we signed him last summer, got him fit and played him from the start, instead of persisting with Gazzaniga.

 

I would say absolutely at most we'd have got 6 more points. Gazzaniga played in wins against QPR (away) and Newcastle, (plus Cup wins Stevenage and Sheff Wed), draws against Fulham (he was partially to blame for one goal, so let's say 2 points there), Swansea (say 2 more there arguably), and Norwich (say 2 more there too).

 

The defeats were away to Everton (he was at fault for one goal but we'd have lost with any keeper), away to West Brom (we were awful, nothing to do with him), and Liverpool (still dunno how we only lost 1-0).

 

So 6 more points, and that's assuming we won not drew the 3 home matches. We actually won 45% of matches he played in, and 19% of those he didn't. Even without the League Cup games we won 33% of them compared to 19% without him.

 

Those 6 points, with Norwich, West Brom and Swansea all losing a point each as well, would have seen us come 9th (still below West Brom, but above Stoke, Fulham, West Ham, Swansea and Norwich). We'd have still been 13 points adrift of 7th, and frankly even the remotest effort in winning at home to Stoke in the last game would have seen us 11th. Even blaming him for everything, we'd still only be realistically 6 points better - and that's assuming Boruc actually would have been a better option at that point.

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What a difference a year makes.....after that disasterous start LAST season, lots of people were asking why we'd signed an overweight, out-of-training goalie with " an attitude ".

 

It's fairly certain that NA didn't seem to want him, (not at first anyway)...and persisted with his KD / Gazzaniga combination.

 

But one year on, suddenly Artur is villian turned hero, and one wonders what the future holds?.

 

Regardless of the result of tomorrows (Tuesday) game, I think we're in for an " interesting" season, especially if Artur continues his fine form.

 

One intersting question we may never get the real answer to is ..exactly WHO had the smart idea to sign him in the first place?.... and how did they convince Cortese to agree ?

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Listening to radio 5 this morning - lots of coverage of the match.

 

But not one mention of Mr Boruc being between the sticks for the Poles. You'd think that given the prominence of the keeper in the 1973 match everyone has been going on about that they might have at least mentioned him... Surely there's an interesting discussion to be had when England have to win and the opposition keeper has kept 5 clean sheets in 7 premiership games already this season!?

 

Perhaps it's just my red-tinted specs, but I found it utterly irritating!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Depending which of today's paper you read (there was a marginal difference in stats between 'I' and the Mail) then Boruc has the highest shots on targets vs saves ratio in the premiership so far this season. He's been quite an inspirational signing and instrumental in where we are currently stand it would appear.

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