Gavin Bazunu

[Turkish]

5 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Few more snippets here -

 

 

If I recall correctly the last player built up so much as being potentially world class was Ryan Smith 

[S-Clarke]

13 minutes ago, Turkish said:

If I recall correctly the last player built up so much as being potentially world class was Ryan Smith 

He was supposedly the next Arjen Roben wasn't he? Or was that Lee Holmes. They were obviously both world class, so it's easy to get mixed up.

[OVER THE HILL]

12 hours ago, Deanovski said:

Been told he was the best footballer at the club and he was the goalie.

The second best footballer there was the tea lady.

[Chez]

11 hours ago, waylander said:

I think it highly likely

Boy, I bet that elite team of scouts circling the globe watching keepers every week are laughing among themselves about all those wasted air miles.

 

 

[Saint86]

Kids going to be good, naysayers need a bit of faith. 

[trousers]

10 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Kids going to be good, naysayers need a bit of faith. 

It's easier to be sceptical though... In due course, you get to play either your "told you so" card or your "glad I was proven wrong" card. Win win. 

Edited 10 June, 2022 by trousers

[Maggie May]

if we sign Bazunu, and I hope we do, I think he’s going to be our next van Dijk. 

[The Kraken]

22 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

if we sign Bazunu, and I hope we do, I think he’s going to be our next van Dijk. 

Man City seem keen on a buy back clause similar to Tino, so the financial reward wouldn’t be as great. But if even if they chose to accept to pay it, it would likely mean that the lad has done very well for us, so positives all round.

[Kings Chase Saint]

16 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Kids going to be good, naysayers need a bit of faith. 

I agree.  Those making the comparison with Gunn are wrong on this.  It's like comparing Hoedt and Van Dijk who came to Saints at similar ages and are Dutch but had vastly different outcomes.  This guy looks much more agile than any keeper we've had since Niemi and seems good with the ball at his feet and has a good temperament.  He's already seen as one of the best young keepers in Europe and not many play for their national teams at 20.  

[AlexLaw76]

5 minutes ago, Kings Chase Saint said:

I agree.  Those making the comparison with Gunn are wrong on this.  It's like comparing Hoedt and Van Dijk who came to Saints at similar ages and are Dutch but had vastly different outcomes.  This guy looks much more agile than any keeper we've had since Niemi and seems good with the ball at his feet and has a good temperament.  He's already seen as one of the best young keepers in Europe and not many play for their national teams at 20.  

Van Dijk was 24-25 when he came to saints, already won titles played in European competition for Celtic

I am sure this keeper will be good, but come on....

Edited 11 June, 2022 by AlexLaw76

[Suhari]

Give me a Saints team playing high press, attacking football, made up of the best up-and-coming players from around Europe, mixed with a couple of experienced pros. Solid cup runs, firmly in the mix for the 8-12 table finish.

I'll be very happy Saints fan.

Quite happy with the #pathway model.

Hope we get this guy onboard.

 

[Sunglasses Ron]

19 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Van Dijk was 24-25 when he came to saints, already won titles played in European competition for Celtic

I am sure this keeper will be good, but come on....

Are you suggesting that a season playing at Fartton Krap isn’t the same thing?

[saintwbu]

42 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Van Dijk was 24-25 when he came to saints, already won titles played in European competition for Celtic

I am sure this keeper will be good, but come on....

He was quite clearly making a comparison of comparisons, rather than comparing Bazunu to Van Dijk 🙄

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

1 hour ago, Suhari said:

Give me a Saints team playing high press, attacking football, made up of the best up-and-coming players from around Europe, mixed with a couple of experienced pros. Solid cup runs, firmly in the mix for the 8-12 table finish.

I'll be very happy Saints fan.

Quite happy with the #pathway model.

Hope we get this guy onboard.

 

Nice to dream, but we are currently a million miles from that

[The Curse of St Mary's]

By the reports I've read this guy has all the attributes of a modern day goalkeeper. Yes he's young and inexperienced but he would do well to be worse than both McCarthy and Forster. Both of them were poor with ball at their feet and made significant number of mistakes leading to goals. Forster made some good saves after his return but let's not forget he was at fault for a few goals also 

[Saint86]

6 hours ago, Suhari said:

Give me a Saints team playing high press, attacking football, made up of the best up-and-coming players from around Europe, mixed with a couple of experienced pros. Solid cup runs, firmly in the mix for the 8-12 table finish.

I'll be very happy Saints fan.

Quite happy with the #pathway model.

Hope we get this guy onboard.

 

Well said. We have new owners who seem to be proactive. We are finally seeing a shake up of the coaching setup (hiring on merit which this place had called for for years), we look like we're going to positively refresh the first team, and the academy sides are doing great... Far from being the badly run b&b some fans make out! I'd say we seem to have a reasonable strategy centred around stability off the field, high pressing football throughout the club, and signing promising young players.

We're not going to go out and compete with teams like villa and Everton on spend, but we're clearly going to try and upset the apple cart in our own way. It suits our 'underdog' reputation, and it definetly makes a change from cylicng through dull and dire managers (puel-Hughes) and signing squad filler players for inflated fees and high wages!

Edited 11 June, 2022 by Saint86

[Teddeer]

Looks great in skills videos - very agile and spreads himself well. Obviously the videos don't show mistakes and also nothing on handling of crosses or control/passing with his feet. However, he looks a massive upgrade on McCarthy though that's not hard.

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Suhari]

2 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

How he'll fit into the side? Ummmm, he's a goalkeeper. Shall we draw you a diagram, Sherlock?

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Last Wednesday he was close to signing but now it's gone a little quieter. How close does he need to be to actually sign??

[Matthew Le God]

3 minutes ago, Ivan Katalinic's 'tache said:

Last Wednesday he was close to signing but now it's gone a little quieter. How close does he need to be to actually sign??

Within an arm's length of the paper 📃 

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Saint Matty 76]

I imagine there's a lot of add-ons in there, be interesting to see if the initial outlay is £10m+ as well.

[SuperSAINT]

 🚨 

[Convict Colony]

[SuperSAINT]

8 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Great to get this wrapped up as we can only ever concentrate on 1 deal at a time, right, @Matthew Le God?
👀 🎣 

[Saint Garrett]

Looks like a good bit of business. Hopefully we can bring in a decent CB partner to play alongside Sali, and a decent DM to play alongside Prowsey, and we might start to leak a few less goals. 

Fully expect him to be our no 1. Looks a class act already. Exciting one.

[Miltonaggro]

Playing against some very good attacking players here, including Tadic, and he's exceptional.  If Forster or McCarthy was in goal here it would have been 5-0.  This lad is coming in as the new number 1 for sure - 

 

[sadoldgit]

15 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

Playing against some very good attacking players here, including Tadic, and he's exceptional.  If Forster or McCarthy was in goal here it would have been 5-0.  This lad is coming in as the new number 1 for sure - 

 

The finishing wasn’t particularly good though and both Forster and McCarthy could probably have saved these too.

[The Cat]

26 minutes ago, sadoldgit said:

The finishing wasn’t particularly good though and both Forster and McCarthy could probably have saved these too.

The first and last saves were very good. His trigger movement is excellent in those situations.

[Convict Colony]

19 minutes ago, The Cat said:

The first and last saves were very good. His trigger movement is excellent in those situations.

Cat you already use goalkeeping type phrases so i am inclined to believe you.

The question is though is he good enough to resist our coaching impacting his skills.

[Baird of the land]

Not the experience profile of gk I was hoping for. Clearly he's got some talent so if he does sign hopefully he can maximise it and we can help him in signing a more experienced leader at cb and a new screen at dm.

[The Cat]

2 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Cat you already use goalkeeping type phrases so i am inclined to believe you.

The question is though is he good enough to resist our coaching impacting his skills.

Andrew Sparkes managed to build Forster back up to be vaguely competent again this season.

I'm not really sure how highly rated he is to be honest. Monk may know.

This video with Courtois is good in regards 1v1 saves, he talks through the technical aspect of how he deals with them.

It's pretty much down to good decision making and at what point you move towards the striker. In the Bazunu video he picks the right moment to close the space by moving just at the moment the striker goes to shoot. Then it's down to making himself big. If you watch the video below Courtois has slightly different style but same end result.

Alisson is the one though. He's 1v1 stats are insane. He does this crazy negative step thing where it looks like his weight is going the wrong way and then he adjusts. Absolutely ridiculous skill to be honest.

There's some examples in this video.

 

[Nolan]

Will Bazunu be announced before p*mpey remove him from their squad pages?

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, The Cat said:

The first and last saves were very good. His trigger movement is excellent in those situations.

Honest opinion on McCarthy?

[Wurzel]

3 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

Playing against some very good attacking players here, including Tadic, and he's exceptional.  If Forster or McCarthy was in goal here it would have been 5-0.  This lad is coming in as the new number 1 for sure - 

 

The one on one was superb. The shot stopping, well to be fair he saved them all but you'd be disappointed to let any of those in. Looked very composed once in possession of the ball (compare with Pickford's excited schoolboy act every time he holds one).

But most promising of all, watching tha,

t he's already use to playing behind a sh|t defence and having to do all the work himself.

Straight in as #1 hopefully.

[JRM]

On 11/06/2022 at 15:28, AlexLaw76 said:

Van Dijk was 24-25 when he came to saints, already won titles played in European competition for Celtic

I am sure this keeper will be good, but come on....

Made me laugh that, Gav has turned out for Rochdale and Skates and is getting the next Van Dijk predction! 

[Disco Stu]

Any idea if there's a buy-back clause?

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, Disco Stu said:

Any idea if there's a buy-back clause?

Athletic reporting that there is.

[CampionSaint]

30 minutes ago, Wurzel said:

The one on one was superb. The shot stopping, well to be fair he saved them all but you'd be disappointed to let any of those in. Looked very composed once in possession of the ball (compare with Pickford's excited schoolboy act every time he holds one).

But most promising of all, watching tha,

t he's already use to playing behind a sh|t defence and having to do all the work himself.

Straight in as #1 hopefully.

He's definitely good at shot stopping and his distribution is excellent, and at 20 has room for improvement and is rated about the best in Europe for his age.  His weakness is apparently on crosses and may need to do a bit of work at commanding the box but overall a good buy I think.  I suspect the deal will be structured in such a way that we'll only pay the full amount with add-ons if he proves a success.  

[Disco Stu]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Athletic reporting that there is.

£12m rising to £15m seems a lot to spend if we've included a buy-back. I suppose the deal wouldn't have been possible without it but that's a big outlay for a 20 year old. We're certainly taking all the risk. Man City have a great little arrangement.

[Roo1976]

I can see a lot of Peter Shilton type movement in his stance and presence , not a bad thing.🙂

[Matthew Le God]

5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

£12m rising to £15m seems a lot to spend if we've included a buy-back. I suppose the deal wouldn't have been possible without it but that's a big outlay for a 20 year old. We're certainly taking all the risk. Man City have a great little arrangement.

If the buyback is similar to the £40m+ one Saints have for Livramento then it potentially sees Saints benefit if he does go back to city with a big profit. Plus buy backs expire, so if City remain happy with Ederson then they may not go for a buy back before it does expire.

Edited 15 June, 2022 by Matthew Le God

[Disco Stu]

7 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

If the buyback is similar to the £40m one Saints have for Livramento then it potentially sees Saints benefit if he does go back to city with a big profit. Plus buy backs expire, so if City remain happy with Ederson then they may not go for a buy back before it does expire.

I hope it's a bit more than £40m given the direction the markets continue to go. That could be considered very cheap in another couple of years but if that's the only way we can get the deal done so be it.

Edited 15 June, 2022 by Disco Stu

[Ekelund]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

If the buyback is similar to the £40m one Saints have for Livramento then it potentially sees Saints benefit if he does go back to city with a big profit. Plus buy backs expire, so if City remain happy with Ederson then they may not go for a buy back before it does expire.

MLG this isn’t a dig. Where does he stack up in terms of FM ratings? Never played the game, just curious, assuming his stats are from a skate or city fan. Is there a batting order of such things?

looks a promising signing from what I’ve read 

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Ekelund said:

MLG this isn’t a dig. Where does he stack up in terms of FM ratings? Never played the game, just curious, assuming his stats are from a skate or city fan. Is there a batting order of such things?

As he spent last season at Pompey he was last updated by the Pompey researcher rather than the Man City researcher. 

His current ability in FM makes him a top L1 level keeper, with a very high potential ability.

[Mystic Force]

The important thing is we will have different goalkeeping coaches so they can't ruin him.

Edited 15 June, 2022 by Mystic Force

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, Mystic Force said:

The important thing is we will have different goalkeeping coaches so they can't ruin him.

Saints have the same keeper coach as they did last season.... Andrew Sparkes.

[Chez]

28 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

£12m rising to £15m seems a lot to spend if we've included a buy-back. I suppose the deal wouldn't have been possible without it but that's a big outlay for a 20 year old. We're certainly taking all the risk. Man City have a great little arrangement.

I agree. They make money and then get the chance to buy an amazing keeper on the cheap, should he shine. We on the other hand take all the risk and then don't make top dollar if he is a success.  The big clubs just get stronger and stronger.

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, Chez said:

I agree. They make money and then get the chance to buy an amazing keeper on the cheap, should he shine. We on the other hand take all the risk and then don't make top dollar if he is a success.  The big clubs just get stronger and stronger.

A circa £25m profit would hardly be a disastrous situation.